Essay

A feature that appears to characterise all creative processes is the challenge of balancing various
constraints in a constructive manner to ensure the process progression toward a final goal. To help
concretise the term constraint, we can say that they are factors that limit the agents creative
space of action. It is something that set boundaries on solutions. However, constraints play a
remarkable role as both delimiters and enablers in processes. As evidence of this, Claude Monet,
Filippo Brunelleschi and Marcel Duchamp have developed their creativity through them and, in this
way, they have changed the notions of art.
An Impressionist paints landscapes and outdoor scenes outside, often working for a very short
period of time. Then, as the light changes, the Impressionist stops working, returning on a
subsequent day when the light is similar. This shows one of the principals constraints that Claude
Monet had to overcame in his paintings. He was one of the founders of French Impressionist
painting. At the start of this movement, Monet's constraints in the use of materials and technology
precluded dark-light contrasts which, by extension, preclude both the illusion of depth and sharply
outlined shapes (specific old ways of producing representational paintings). In his performance
artwork titled Regatta at Sainte-Addresse (1867), oil on canvas, it can be seen that this sunny
regatta is watched at high tide by smartly-dressed bourgeois showing fishing boats hauled onto the
sand, peopled with sailors and workers. It can be appreciated how he made the light broke up on
things in the bright, clear, contrasting hues and in cream-coloured sails casting blue shadows on a
teal green sea. He does this to leave behind the conventional idea that the shadow of an object
consists of colour with some brown or black added . Instead, the colours are enriched with the idea
that the shadow of an object breaks with its complementary colour scripts . Also, Monet
simultaneously promoted contrasting closely-valued colours, which, in turn, promoted flat patterns
with soft-edged shapes that shared brushstrokes and colours. To achive his commitment , he drew
upon the method of plein air painting (common practice in French Impresionist paintings), which
consist in doing his artwork outdoors, in the diffuse light of a large white umbrella, reproducing the
actual visual conditions seen at the time of the painting. Monet didn't come up with those
constraints arbitrarily. They were strategically chosen to realize his new goal criterion showing
how light breaks up on surfaces. Monets' artwork have had a great impact on our world due to the
innovative techniques he implemented, characteristic of the French Impressionism movement. The
subject matter: a location that monet was passionate about, a nature scene that he could observe
from his garden. He rejected the traditional approach to landscape painting and instead painted his
subject matter realistically and convey the ephemeral effects of nature. Monet's rebellious new style
of painting was not initially welcomed by the art community. It was actually considered controversial
and suffered repeated rejections because France at the time cherished their traditional roots.
Another example of an artist working with materials and technology constraints is Filippo
Brunelleschi. He is considered to be the principal founder of Renaissance architecture. He applied
contemporary principles of mathematics to derive a system of architectural proportions that was
scaled to human dimensions. Brunelleschisi technological accomplishments, including his innovative
machines and subsequent designs of new buildings, advanced the architectural methods of the
Renaissance. Brunelleschi overcame the technological constraints that troubled some of his
contemporaries through innovative design and development of machinery. This can be seen in his
design of the Cathedral in Florence (1418) where he proposed the construction of a double-vaulted
cupola a design that has never been duplicated since then. This cupola could be built without
using costly centering (the temporary wooden structure designed to support a vault while it is being
constructed). His proposed innovation: make each level of construction strong enough to support
itself while the workmen built the next level. To achieve this new and safe technique, Brunelleschi
had invented various machines such as hoists and cranes with load positioners. His machines were
capable of lifting huge weights great distances so that they accurately reached the workers who
would fit them into place. The machines were also safe and allowed the work to be completed
relatively quickly. At the time of the design of the cupola his idea was controversial because the
method of construction he proposed had no precedent. All existing cupolas were small, semicircular
domes. His mathematical and mechanical abilities made him a forerunner in modern structural

design. Brunelleschi's work occasioned in architecture a revival of classical forms and ornament
and revealed an increased concern for the delineation and unification of space as an interest in
classical antiquity.
Other important constraint that affect the artwork is the audience expectations. This is reflected in
Marcel Duchamps work, which wreaked havoc in 20th century art, a French painter and sculptor
associated with Cubism and conceptual art. The readymade concept he invented in the 1910s
opened the door to the most radically avant-garde adventures. After Duchamp, the constraints of
traditional media vanished and arts possibilities stretched to absolutely any object, altered or not.
The readymades of Marcel Duchamp are ordinary manufactured objects that the artist selected and
modified, as an antidote to what he called "retinal art". Some of his artwork were rejected by art
juries and others went unnoticed at art shows. Duchamps work started out as a private pursuit
and indeed most of his readymades got lost during his successive moves or ended up in bins.
Dating from 1914, Pharmacy is a rectified readymade, incorporating a reproduction of another
artists artwork which has been altered by Duchamp. He added small spots of red and green and
named it Pharmacy because the patches of colour reminded him of the colourful jars common in
French pharmacies. With this work, Duchamp explored two important concerns: appropriating other
works of art for ones own and determining just how much or how little effort was required on the
part of the artist to create an actual work of art. With just a few dabs of his paintbrush and virtually
no effort at all, Duchamp had completed what he declared to be a new artwork. It was identical in
process to the creation of any other painting, but Pharmacy was clearly an attack on societys
perception of the creative act. He is demanding that the audience consider more carefully how they
have been defining art. The fact that his readymade was not seen, initially, as art by everyone and
other artists were shocked, however, shows that there were a great many people who were not
prepared to accept the consequences of valuing process over product.
The basic structures and rules of an art form might at first appear to be limiting, but in reality the
tension between freedom and what appears to be the restricting aspects is what allows artists to
express themselves fully and their art to thrive. In fact, complete freedom can severely limit your
creativity while constraints tend to amplify creativeness and opportunity for artistic expression. The
restrictive aspects and elements of the art form, while still offering opportunity for numerous options,
enable the artists to direct their thoughts and ideas more effectively. All creativity is a bounded
activity and the greatest enemy of art is the absence of limitation.