In the language of art, line is one of the five essential elements. In geometric terms, a line is created when any two points are connected, but in artistic terms, line is character itself. Thick or thin, straight or curved, sure or unsure, continuous or broken—each of these conveys an emotional direction. Consider the horizon line, a horizontal line dividing land or sea from sky for as far as the eye can see—such a line gives the impression of stability or repose. Compare that with the acceleration conveyed by vertical lines that lift our gaze into the heavens, or with the dynamism of a diagonal line which affectively directs our gaze both up and out or down and out.

    I think that lines are best understood by those whose draw, for in spending time drawing lines, one becomes acquainted with the multiplicity of expressive possibilities they hold. Most painters hide their lines, preferring to create the impression of an edge instead, with a few glorious exceptions—Degas with complimentary toned lines rendered in pastel—little purple  scratches embanking upon a field of yellow, Modigliani with his fiercely defiant thick black brush strokes used to outline a body or face—not a slave to the imitation of nature with paint, but an outlaw willing to simplify an impression of an expression with a gesture. And Holbein (the younger) whose preparatory sketches on their own are the finest, surest, purest portraits I have ever seen. Once seen, they forever illuminate the underlying structure of his paintings.

    Buildings have lines just as dresses do—Gehry’s fluid arcs expressed in titanium and aluminum give a character to his buildings that is unmistakably his own—playful, audacious, striving. Palladio’s formal lines with perfect rhythms repeating and small variations enlivening conjure the musical accompaniment of Bach whose lines of music do the same.

    Amongst the modernists, the executioners of the Looney Tunes style—from Tex Avery to Chuck Jones, masters of the squash and stretch are most responsible for bringing line to life—if line has character, and character evokes emotion, no lines by any artist’s hands have ever wrested a deeper response from me—Van Gogh’s included. I place the merit of my Looney Tunes wrested laugh above all other art induced pleasures.