the.com/negative space
what isn't there, doing all the work of what is.
means the empty area around and between subjects in an image, which shapes how you read the subjects themselves.
from formalized in early 20th-century art theory and gestalt psychology, though sculptors and potters had been exploiting empty space for millennia before anyone named it.
fedex logohides an arrow in the gap between e and x
rubin vaseclassic illusion is two faces or one goblet
chinese ink paintingleaves blank space to imply mist or sky
gestalt termpsychologists call it figure-ground perception