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To understand and apply the principle of "figure/ground" as it applies to the two-dimensional picture plane.
At the threshold of perception we see objects against backgrounds. The whole visual world may be thought of as a continuous series of figure/ground relationships with objects overlapping or interacting with their backgrounds. Several kinds of relationships can be identified: the vignette in which the figure "floats" above the the sheet of paper or ground; interacting or integrated figure/ground relationships in which both the figure and the ground have equal importance; ambiguous or alternating figure/ground relationships in which it is unclear just what is the figure and what is the ground (e.g. a checkerboard, or the classic vase and profile reversal). Interpenetration involves a reversal of the figure/ground relationship at selected points where contour lines would otherwise be lost against a predominately dark or light background (e.g., graphic designers will often do a figure/ground reversal where text is run over alternating dark and light areas. Though the value of the text is shifting dramatically--from light to dark--the relative contrast of the figure/ground relationship remains the same.)
Richard Avedon (photo), M.C. Escher, Islamic calligraphy, Japanese Kanji, Mimbres pottery, Franz Kline, Barbara Kruger, Dorothea Lange (photo), Robert Longo, Danny Lyon (photo), Robert Motherwell, Navajo weaving, Kara Walker, Georges Seurat (conte' drawings), Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Rembrandt Van Rijn, Kitagawa Utamaro, James Whistler
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