Composition is a broad artistic term that encompasses concepts of proportion, harmony and relationships between elements. Classical artists spent years acquiring skills in proper composition so that they could create objects and paintings that were pleasing to the eye. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Modernism created a revolution against the dominance of beauty in art, and replaced it with rebellion and a questioning of everything that had come before. Early artistic rebels such as Pablo Picasso and Marcel Duchamp had been trained in classical techniques, but used their understanding of composition to undermine the orthodoxies of the art world.
Creating artistic elements that emphasize each other through difference is an example of contrast. Contrasting techniques can be used to create harmonious relationships, as in classical images of a large central figure surrounded by balanced smaller figures, or to create a sense of discomfort and alienation, as in Surrealist works that contrast incompatible elements in strange surroundings. Color relationships also use contrast to great effect in both fine art and graphic design. Pairs of colors that are opposite each other on the color wheel create harmonious contrasts: blue and orange, red and green and yellow and purple. Conversely, pairs that are next to each other create discord: blue and green, red and purple and yellow and orange.
Beginning in the Renaissance around the year 1500, perspective became the dominant principle of design in the fine arts. Prior to this, figures were portrayed in a flat plane in a symbolic manner. Practices of perspective allowed artists to reflect the world as it is actually seen by using receding planes and figures sized according to their distance from the viewer. Perspective reigned in the art world for hundreds of years until Modernism again began to use theories of subjective sight and question the value of portraying the outside world. Abstract Expressionism rebelled against perspective by emphasizing the flatness of the picture plane.
Since the late 19th century transgression has been a central concept in the creation of fine art. Many art movements devoted themselves to overturning and destroying the beliefs and conventions of previous eras. Impressionism, Dada, Cubism, Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art all sought new ways of seeing and rejected what they saw as unfounded dogma. Ironically, transgression itself became an orthodoxy at some points in art history, and artists were rejected as irrelevant and academic unless they were rebelling against something. Nihilists and rebels against history such as the Futurists of early 20th century Italy suffered the ironic fate of becoming a part of history themselves.