It is not a semblance of things, but a world of objects that the
picture forces us to take in with a glance. The objects may not get
lost. The outline is the demarcation and designation of the
objects. By its outer essence their inner nature is expressed. The
nature of objects is not fixed by a correct drawing, but by a
forceful and emotional, intensive and pervasive outline. Not in
their restfulness and with their details do the objects serve the
picture, but by their relations to each other, which relations
combined lead up to the climax.
The long lines form the structure of the picture. They decide how
the picture is to be constructed from its parts, and how the parts
are to be interlocked in order to become a whole. The long lines
define the measure and rhythm of the work. Lines are the vibrations
of the soul; lines are reflections of the will, the rigidity of
that which endures. Like currents of forces they flow against each
other and unite into one. The smaller ones accompany them with
playful gambols, like a multiple echo, the sounds of which melt
away in the distance.
The picture is not a nicely divided plane. It is like a world
arising from chaos. Its essence is the law of order working itself
out. The picture is an agglomeration of agitated members, an
agglomeration of planes pulsating with blood, enlivened by breath.
The planes may be stratified, parallel and similar to each other;
they may rear and pile themselves against each other, or they may
interlock like cogs. They may liquefy and melt away, or they may
double up and form themselves into balls. They may, more quietly,
rest within themselves, becoming effective through the contrast of
their essence and yet maintaining themselves. Out of them
originates the picture’s spaciousness, out of them the living force
of the picture.
The dynamics of the planes is a manifestation of the new style.[36]
[Illustration:
DUCHAMP
King and Queen
]
Passing one morning among a number of first year students drawing from
casts in the Chicago Art Institute, I was struck by the large number who
were making what would pass for Cubist sketches; yet not one of these
young students had seen a Cubist picture. All were simply following the
regular course of instruction and drawing _in planes_.
I remember one drawing of a statue by Michael Angelo. There was not a
straight line in the statue; there was not a curved line in the drawing;
the drawing was blocked out far more solidly and geometrically than, for
instance, either the original design for “The Man on the Balcony” or the
finished painting.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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