Lost & Found Edges: If two adjacent, parallel (overlapping or contiguous) planes are graduated in opposite directions, from dark to light or light to dark, they will share one area where all differences of value are minimized or dissolved. This is an area of what the French call passage or bridge-passage, a fluid middle zone. Important though it may be, it often goes unnoticed. It is that part of a work which provides respiration and transaction between boundaries, form and form, form and space. It makes for orm-space continuity. So, then, simultaneous contrast shading, as the term suggests, involves double reversals with subtle open and closed areas ("lost and found edges") and passage--if its use is not to degenerate into formula.
. . . . Paul Klee attached a great deal of importance to this as a structural device and referred to it as "endoptopic and exotopic treatment" Characteristically, he made both plastic and graphic-poetic use of it. Functionally, it provided a way of creating forward and backward as well as transparent planar fluctuations, in that forms shaded from within (endoptopically) tend to recede, while forms shaded from without (exotopically) tend to press to the fore. Simultaneous treatment of both inside and outside areas evokes the important principle of interpenetration. This in itself is enough to recommend it to artists who have no use for the conventional types of shading.
[Harlan, Calvin. Vision & Invention, An Introduction to Art Fundamentals. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1986. [See Study 7 on Endotopic-exotopic treatment, pg. 156]
R E F E R E N C E S
1 Edge n E egge, fr. OE ecg; akin to L acer sharp, GK akmé point] [bef 12c] 1a: the cutting side of a blade b: the sharpness of a blade c [1]: Force, Effectiveness [blunted the __ of the legislation] [2]: vigor or energy esp. of body [ maintains his hard __] d [1]: incisive or penetrating quality [writing with a satirical __] [2]: a noticeably harsh or sharp quality [ her voice had an __ to it] e: keenness of desire or enjoyment [lost my competitive __] [took the __ off our appetites] 2a: the line where an object or area begins or ends: Border [on the __ of a plain] b: the narrow part adjacent to a border [the __ of the deck] c: a point near the beginning or the end; esp: Brink, Verge [on thte __ of disaster] d: a favorable margin: Advantage [has an __ on the competition] 3: a line or line segment that is the intersection of two plane faces [as a pyramid] or of two planes -on edge: Anxious, Nervous
2 Edge vt [14c] 1a: to give an edge to b: to be on an edge of [trees edging the lake] 2: to move or force gradually [edged him off the road] 3: to incline [a ski] sideways so that one edge cuts into the snow 4: to defeat by a small margin -often used with out [edged out her opponent] -vi: to advance by short moves
Edged adj [bef. 12c] 1: having a specified kind of edge, boundary, or border or a specified number of edges [ rough-edged] [two-edged] 2: Sharp, Cutting [an __ knife] [an __ remark]
Edge-wise adv [1677] Sideways
Edging n [1558]: something that forms an edge or border
Edgy adj [1775] 1: having an edge: Sharp 2A: being on edge: Tense, Irritable b: characterized by tension [__ negotiations]
[Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 10th Edition. Springfield, MA, USA: Merriam-Webster, Inc. 1995.]
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