Distort

To change the way something looks ? sometimes deforming or stretching an object or figure out of its normal shape to exaggerate its features ? making it more interesting or meaningful. El Greco's (Greek-Spanish Mannerist painter, 1541-1614) elongated figures are examples of moderate distortion.Other examples: Hans Holbein (German, 1497/8-1543), The Ambassadors, oil. An anamorphic human skull in the lower third of the painting can be seen see thumbnail to rightundistorted only from a viewpoint that is near and below the painting, and to its left. See vanitas. "Weegee", Usher Fellig (born 1899, in Lemberg [also know as Lvov], Austria [now Ukraine], moved to New York 1906, died in New York in 1968) was a photographer who employed various methods for distorting photographs, using unusual lenses and other materials with his camera and enlarger. See the ICP exhibit on Weegee's career. Also see filter, lens, and photography.Quote: "Art is significant deformity." Roger Fry (1866-1934), British art critic. Quoted by Virginia Woolf in Roger Fry, 1940, ch. 8. See disfigure. "The art of irony that I employ is based on exaggeration, and art in general is based on distortion." Robert Colescott (1925-), American painter. Quoted on Walker Art Center Web site. See irony. Also see abstraction, anamorphosis, antiquing, aspect ratio, beauty, deformalism, dent, derived image, description, discoloration, disfigure, distress, expression, Expressionism, fish-eye lens, fragment, Futurism, grotesque, implied, kerf, lacuna, letterform, literal qualities, Mannerism, metamorphosis, optical illusion, reversals, stress, transform, ugly, and wide-angle lens.