Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Group 4:
Iconic Plane
Iconic Plane or the Image Itself
What makes an Image “Iconic”?
Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa and Edvard
Munch’s The Scream have all achieved something
that most paintings—regardless of their art historical
importance, beauty, or monetary value. They
communicate a specific meaning almost immediately
to almost every viewer. These few works have
successfully made the transition from the elite realm
of the museum visitor to the enormous venue of
popular culture. This prompted me to ponder the idea
of iconic images.
icon
1. a ·picture, image, or other representation.
2. Eastern Church. a representation of some
sacred
personage, as Christ or a saint or angel, painted usually
on a wood surface and venerated itself as sacred.
3. a sign or representation that stands for its
object by virtue of a resemblance or analogy to it.
4. Computers. a picture or symbol that appears on
a monitor and is used to represent a command,
as a file drawer to represent filing.
5. Semiotics. a sign or representation that stands
for its object by virtue of a resemblance or
analogy to it.
To be truly iconic an image must also
carry with it some connection to a larger
contextual meaning. For example, Warhol’s
soup can is not just a soup can. It
symbolizes the artistic movement out of
which it arose and tells us something about
the times in which it was created. Thus, an
image to be truly iconic is that it must
represent something beyond what is
pictured to some significant subset of the
population.
ICONIC PLANE
This level is still part of the semiotic approach
since it is still based on the signifier-signified
relationships. The only difference is that it has to
do with the particular features, aspects, and
qualities of the image.
This image signifiers are
about celebrating a war’s
end and the excitement of
what post-life offer.
The image is regarded as an “iconic sign”,
which means – beyond its narrow association
with religious images in the Byzantine style –
that is unique, particular, and highly nuanced
meaning, as different from a conventional
sign, such as traffic or street sign that has a
single literal meaning agreed upon by social
convention.
1) Frontal
2) Profile
3) Three-fourth and the signification
that arises from these different
presentations.
•Luna’s Tampuhan (1895)
A Woman with
Chrysanthemum
In cropping figures intended to create a
random, arbitrary effect as against the
deliberate and controlled.
Isolate segment of the object (hand or feet) in
order to draw attention to its physical qualities.
Relationship of the figures to one another
relationship the way they are composed
whether;
1) Massed figure
2) Isolated figure
3) Juxtaposed figure
1) Massed
figure
2) Isolated figure
3) Juxtaposed
figure
Painting
May expand or multiply its space
May occur in temporal sequences
Serial images
Style of Figuration
Aphrodite of Cnidus
created by Praxiteles
Realist Figuration
Based in keen observation
of the people, nature and
society in the concern for truth
of representation, thus
creating portraits of individual
without glossing over physical
imperfections and defects or
exposing the environmental
squalor that arises from social Los Trabajadores (The
inequalities. Workers), 2005
by Susan Contreras
Impressionist Figuration
By Fongwei Liu
Expressionist Figuration
Follows emotional
impulses and drives, thus
often involving distortion
and clashing of colors that
came from strong
emotion.
The Scream
created by Edward
Munch
SUMMARY
The Iconic Plane or the Image Itself
This level is still part of the semiotic approach
since it is still based on the signifier-signified
relationships. The only difference is that it has to do
with the particular features, aspects, and qualities of
the image.
The iconic plane includes the choice of the subject
which may bear with social and political implications.
Also, part of the iconic plane is the positioning of
the figure (frontal, in profile, three-fourths, etc.)
that implies its bearing to the meaning of the work.
This is important not only in defining the
relationships of the subject and the viewer but also
in describing pictorial space. Also takes into
account the relationship of the figures to one
another, whether massed, isolated, or juxtaposed in
terms of affinity or contrast. The style of figuration
or the proportion of the body deals with the image
itself.
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