74 RESTRAINT
THE POWER OF HOLDING BACK
Restraint can be a very powerful idea in painting and sculpture. Unlike film or illustration, which often seek to entertain and dazzle, fine art can work well when the viewer feels that something is withheld or understated. This can involve simplifying forms, omitting details, or simply being suggestive.
The power of restraint can be seen in the work of the French artist Eugene Carriére (1849–1906), who adopted a style in which he worked in monochrome, sketching heads in loose brush marks with soft edges in such a way that the image almost dissolves into the space around it. The results evoke a sense of mystery as viewers strain to reconstruct the subject from the minimal and somewhat imprecise information ...
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