What is the most suitable reason for treating empty space as meaningful in expression-based art?
Empty space, also called negative or active space, is not automatically an unused portion of the artwork. Its size, shape, position, and relationship to the occupied areas can control attention and create emotional distance. A large gap around a small figure may suggest loneliness, absence, isolation, or vulnerability; a narrow gap may produce pressure and tension. Option A is correct because it recognizes that silence and absence can communicate meaning without written words or additional objects. Option B is incorrect because empty space may be carefully planned. Option C wrongly assumes that less visual detail means less meaning, while D reduces a compositional decision to saving material. Visual meaning can be carried by what is deliberately left open.