view/download complete thesis PDF 4.56 MB - Anthony Auerbach

271 Pages·2003·4.56 MB·English

by  Anthony Auerbach

Anthony W.Auerbach
Structural Constellations
Excursus on the drawings ofJosefAlbers c.1950–1960
I Constellation and Interpretation: Walter Benjamin and T.W.Adorno
II Constellation and Drawing: the semiotics ofstar maps
III Structure and Representation: epistemological wish-images
With a catalogue ofunpublished drawings in the collection ofthe
Josefand Anni Albers Foundation,Connecticut.
Thesis submitted for the Degree ofDoctor ofPhilosophy
Slade School ofFine Art
University College London
2003
How to read Structural Constellations
Ostensibly a monograph on the drawings ofJosefAlbers,the reader will find under the head-
ing ‘excursus’a series ofinvestigations_into the concept ofconstellation in the writings of
Walter Benjamin and Theodor W.Adorno,the semiotics ofstar maps,the rhetorics ofgeom-
etry and the structure ofrepresentation_in which JosefAlbers’s Structural Constellations are
not discussed directly for almost 200 pages.Although it departs from its subject matter,this
group of essays may be regarded as tending towards an interpretation of Structural
Constellations,as Benjamin would say,‘returning in a roundabout way to its original object.’
The main themes ofthe dissertation are addressed to specific objects: texts by Benjamin and
Adorno, star maps in the tradition which stretches between Ptolemy’s Almagest and
Argelander’s Bonner Durchmustering,geometry lessons,the gossip about Cubism,works and
manifestos by Alberti,Dürer,van Doesburg,Lissitsky and Albers.The aim is to broaden the
terms ofreference and develop more precise interpretative tools for an assessment ofAlbers’s
Structural Constellations,to place these works in a more accurate historical context and provide
the basis for a reassessment of some of the products and rhetorics of twentieth century
modernism.
The reader should not expect the dissertation to reach a climax with Albers’s Structural
Constellations.Albers emerges,even as he dissppears in the elucidation ofhis works,as a late
modernist and practitioner of negative dialectics. His works emerge as a configuration of
these dialectics and offer a reflection on the topics and ideas explored in the dissertation.
The historical and theoretical discussion ofthe metaphorical and graphic praxis ofconstel-
lation and what I have called the ‘epistemological wish-images’ mediated by geometry is
counterbalanced by a companion volume cataloguing some 1,500 drawings by JosefAlbers.
Anthony Auerbach
Structural Constellations:
Excursus on the drawings ofJosefAlbers c.1950–1960
I On Constellation and Interpretation:
An exchange between Walter Benjamin and Theodor W.Adorno
My opening chapter traces the modalities ofthe term Konstellationas it changed hands
between the two writers,from its evocation in Benjamin’s study ofGermanTrauerspiel
(1925) through its adoption by Adorno in his programme ‘Die Aktualität der Philosophie’
(1931) to its role in the epistemology ofthe Passagen-Werk (1935–40) and Adorno’s and
Benjamin’s controversies ofthe same period.I also consider the legacy ofthis unfin-
ished discussion in Adorno’s late work.
II On Constellation and Drawing: the semiotics ofstar maps
In this chapter I propose a semiotic analysis ofstar maps.I examine the graphic
expression ofthe negotiation between knowledge and signification in the post-
Ptolemaic tradition ofcelestial cartography by means ofa selection ofhistorical
examples.I advance a semiotic theory in order to form an assessment ofboth innovative
and conservative features ofcelestial cartography.This study includes a treatment of
previously neglected nineteenth-century maps.
II On Structure and Representation: epistemological wish-images
That geometry could be both the guarantee and the abyss ofrepresentation calls for an
historical as much as a structural explanation.In this chapter I consider drawing as the
site ofthe entanglement ofart and geometry.By means ofa set ofhistorical episodes,
I consider what role geometry,mediated by drawing,has played in art and beyond that,
what ideological claims,mediated by geometry,have been made by or for art.I discuss
the changing role ofdrawing in geometry,ancient and modern; and role ofgeometry in
a series ofart-historical episodes: Alberti,Dürer,Monge,Farish,Necker,van Doesburg,
Lissitzky,Albers.
Method is a digression.Representation as digression_such is the methodological nature of
the treatise.The absence ofan uninterrupted purposeful structure is its primary character-
istic.Tirelessly the process ofthinking makes new beginnings,returning in a roundabout
way to its original object.
Walter Benjamin,The Origin ofGerman Tragic Drama
Structural Constellations
Excursus on the drawings ofJosefAlbers c.1950–1960
volume one
List ofIllustrationsiv
I Constellation and Interpretation:
An exchange between Walter Benjamin and T.W.Adorno 1
II Constellation and Drawing: the semiotics ofstar maps 31
III Structure and Representation: epistemological wish-images 88
1 Geometry and Drawing 88
2 Dürer and Alberti: Veils 101
3 Monge: Descriptive Geometry 117
4 Farish: Isometrical Perspective 122
5 Haüy: Crystallography 129
6 Necker: An Optical Phenomenon 133
7 Cubism: The Gossip 137
8 Van Doesburg: ANew Dimension 152
9 Lissitzky: The Constructor 168
10 Albers: Structural Constellations 198
I Reprise: Aesthetic Theory 217
Appendices 221
A Original texts oftranslations from the German cited in Part I 222
B Original texts oftranslations from the French cited in Part II 236
C AComparison ofConstellation Boundaries 240
D AComparison ofConstellation Figures 246
E Original texts oftranslations from the French cited in Part III 253
Thanks 262
volume two
Appendix F
Structural Constellations: Catalogue ofUnpublished Drawings
in the Collection ofthe Josefand Anni Albers Foundation,Connecticut
v
List ofIllustrations
1 Walter Benjamin,Ursprung des deutschen Trauerspiels,book design by Willy Fleckhaus,1963
(drawing by JosefAlbers)
2 Theodor W.Adorno,Minima Moralia: Reflexionen aus dem beschädigten Leben,book design by
Willy Fleckhaus,1962 (drawing by JosefAlbers)
3 The northern hemisphere from Eugène Delporte,Délimitation Scientifique des Constellations,
Cambridge,1930
4 The delimitation ofGemini from Eugène Delporte,Délimitation Scientifique des Constellations,
Cambridge,1930
5 The IAU abbreviated constellation nomenclature (computer generated chart)
6 An armillary sphere from Giovanni Paolo Gallucci,Theatrum Mundi,Venice,1588
7 The Farnese Globe from G.B.Passeri,Atlas Farnesianus,Florence,1750
8 Drawing ofan Arab celestial globe from Adolph Dreschler,Der Arabische Himmelsglobus des
Mohammed ben Muyîd el-’Ordhi vom Jahre 1279,Dresden,1922
9 Albrecht Dürer,Imagines coeli septrionales cum dudecim imaginibus zodiaci,Nuremburg,1515
10 The constellation ofEridanus from Johann Bayer,Uranometria,Augsburg,1603
11 Böotes from C.Julius Hyginus,Poeticon Astronomicon,Venice 1482
12 The constellation ofBöotes from Johann Bayer,Uranometria,Augsburg,1603
13 The constellation ofGemini from Giovanni Paolo Gallucci,Theatrum Mundi,Venice,1588
14 The constellation ofCorvus from Johann Bayer,Uranometria,Augsburg,1603
15 Sanctus Tribus Regibus (Hercules) from Julius Schiller,Coelum Stellatum Christianum,
Augsburg,1627
16 The Holy Sepuchre (Andromeda) from Julius Schiller,Coelum Stellatum Christianum,
Augsburg,1627
17 The constellation ofDraco from Richard A.Proctor,Easy Star Lessons,London,1881
18 The head ofa serpent from Richard A.Proctor,Easy Star Lessons,London,1881
19 Amonstrous winged serpent from Richard A.Proctor,Easy Star Lessons,London,1881
20 Orion’s belt and sword from Galileo Galilei,Siderius Nuncius,Venice,1610
21 The southern hemisphere from Nicolas Louis de Lacaille,Coelum Australe Stelliferum,Paris,1763
22 The Painter’s Easel from Johann Elert Bode,Uranographia,Berlin,1801
(photo: Royal Astronomical Society)
23 The northern hemisphere from Robert de Vaugondy,Uranographie,Paris,1763
(photo: British Library)
24 The pattern ofconstellation boundaries after M.Wollaston,Celestial Hemispheres,London 1809
25 Lynx and Anviga from F.W.A.Argelander,Uranometria Nova,Berlin,1843
26 The Microscope from Johann Elert Bode,Uranographia,Berlin,1801
(photo: Royal Astronomical Society)
27 Table Mountain from Johann Elert Bode,Uranographia,Berlin,1801
(photo: Royal Astronomical Society)
28 Gemini,Cancer and Canus Minor from Charles Dien,Atlas Céleste,Paris,1865
29 Charles Dien,Uranographie(detail),Paris,1830
30 F.W.A.Argelander,Atlas des Nördlichen Gesternten Himmels(detail),Bonn,1863
31 IRAS PSC Redshift Survey plotted as real space density and velocity fields shown in a slice
along the Supergalactic plane.
32 The northern hemisphere from Jacob Bartsch,Planisphaeri Stellati,Strasbourg,1624
33 The southern hemisphere from Maria Francesco Grimaldi,Chinese Star Chart,Beijing,1711
vi
List ofIllustrations
34 The ‘finder chart’from C.F.Goldbach,Neuester Himmels-Atlas,Weimar,1799
35 The northern hemisphere from Janet Taylor,Mrs Janet Taylor’s Planisphere ofthe Stars,
London,1846
36 The Nautical Log and Compass from Johann Elert Bode,Uranographia,Berlin,1801
(photo: Royal Astronomical Society)
37 An inscribed tomb lid from Nantong,Jiangsu province (Southern Tang Dynasty) from
Album ofAncient Chinese Astronomical Relics,Beijing,1980
38 Atypical Chinese star map,drawing ofa star map from Longfu Temple,1453,from
Album ofAncient Chinese Astronomical Relics,Beijing,1980
39 Alexandre Ruelle,Nouvelle Uranographie: ou Methode très facile pour apprendre à connoître les
constellations par les configurations des principales étoiles entre-elles,Paris,1786
(photo: British Library)
40 Sagittarius,Ophiuchus,Serpens,Scorpius from F.W.A.Argelander,Uranometria Nova,
Berlin,1843
41 North polar region from Louis-Benjamin Francœur,Uranographie: ou traité élémentaire
d’astronomie à l’usage des personnes peu versées dans les mathématiques,Paris,1812
42 Index chart from Vincent de Callataÿ, Atlas du Ciel,Brussels,1955
43 The stars ofGemini from H.A.Rey,The Stars: ANew Way to See Them,Boston,1952
44 The ‘allegorical’figure ofGemini from H.A.Rey,The Stars: ANew Way to See Them,Boston,1952
45 The ‘geometrical’figure ofGemini from H.A.Rey,The Stars: ANew Way to See Them,Boston,1952
46 The ‘graphic’figure ofGemini from H.A.Rey,The Stars: ANew Way to See Them,Boston,1952
47 The ‘Old Way’and the ‘New Way’from H.A.Rey,The Stars: ANew Way to See Them,Boston,1952
48 Paul Klee,The Truth about PalmleafFans,1923
49 The notion ofparallelism in hyperbolic geometry from Nikolaj Iwanowitsch Lobatschefskij,
Zwei Geometrische Abhandlungen,Leipzig,1898
50 Beltrami’s model ofhyperbolic geometry from Jeremy Gray,Ideas ofSpace,Euclidean,
Non-Euclidean and Relativistic,Oxford,1989
51 Poincaré’s model ofhyperbolic geometry from B.A.Rosenfeld,AHistory ofNon-Euclidean
Geometry: Evolution ofthe Concept ofa Geometric Space,New York,1988
52 Diagram illustrating latitude and longitude from J.A.Steers,An Introduction to the Study ofMap
Projections,London,1927
53 The Psuedosphere from Roberto Bonola,Non-Euclidean Geometry,Chicago,1912
54 The construction ofthe oblique case ofthe gnomonic projection from J.A.Steers,
An Introduction to the Study ofMap Projections,London,1927
55 Diagram illustrating Poincaré’s projection ofthe hyperbolic plane from B.A.Rosenfeld,
AHistory ofNon-Euclidean Geometry: Evolution ofthe Concept ofa Geometric Space,New York,1988
56 Intrinsic and extrinsic descriptions ofa surface from Jeremy Gray,Ideas ofSpace,Euclidean,
Non-Euclidean and Relativistic,Oxford,1989
57 ‘The first four fields and their perpendiculars’from E.Jouffret,Triaté elementaire de géométrie à
quartre dimensions,Paris,1903
58 Represenation ofa hypercube by William Stringham from American Journal ofMathematics,1880
59 Mark Newbold,stereoscopic projection ofa hypercube,Java applet,1996
60 Hypercube from Henry Parker Manning (ed.),The Fourth Dimension Simply Explained,
New York,1910
61 ‘Plane projection ofsixteen fundamental octahedra’from E.Jouffret,Triaté elementaire de
géométrie à quartre dimensions,Paris,1903
62 ‘Cavalier perspective ofsixteen fundamental octahedra’from E.Jouffret,Triaté elementaire de
géométrie à quartre dimensions,Paris,1903
vii
List ofIllustrations
63 Two-dimensional development ofa cube from Henry Parker Manning (ed.),
The Fourth Dimension Simply Explained,New York,1910
64 Three-dimensional development ofa hypercube from Henry Parker Manning (ed.),
The Fourth Dimension Simply Explained,New York,1910
65 Albrecht Dürer,‘Yet another method’from Underweysung der Messung,2nd edition,
Nuremburg,1538
66 Albrecht Dürer,‘Another method’from Underweysung der Messung,Nuremburg,1525
67 David Allan,The Origin ofPainting (‘The Maid ofCorinth’),1775,National Galleries ofScotland
68 Joseph-Benoit Suvée,The Invention ofthe Art ofDrawing,1791,Groeninge Museum,Bruges
69 Karl Friedrich Schinkel,The Invention ofthe Art ofDrawing,1830,
Von der Heydt-Museum,Wuppertal
70 Paul Klee,‘Rythmic Structuring with flexible base’(1922) from Das Bildnerische Denken,
Basle,1956
71 Albrecht Dürer,‘Fiteen constructed heads,studies in physiognomy’,undated study for
Four Books on Human Proportion
72 Planes ofprojection from Gaspard Monge,Géométrie descriptive,Paris,1799
73 Parallel and central projection from P.J.Booker,AHistory ofEngineering Drawing,London,1963
74 Drawing ofmachine parts from William Farish,‘On Isometrical Perspective’,Cambridge,1822
75 Isometric drawing from William Farish,‘On Isometrical Perspective’,Cambridge,1822
76 Classification ofdrawing systems from Alois Nedoluha,Kulturgeschichte des technischen Zeichens,
Vienna,1957
77 René Just Haüy,‘Partie de Raisonnement’,plate I from Traité de la Minéralogie,Paris,1801
78 René Just Haüy,‘Partie Géométrique’,plate IX from Traité de la Minéralogie,Paris,1801
79 René Just Haüy,‘Substances Acidiferes’,plate XXXIX from Traité de la Minéralogie,Paris,1801
80 René Just Haüy,‘Substances Metalliques’,plate LXXI from Traité de la Minéralogie,Paris,1801
81 Crystals (sketches) from Linneaus,Systema Naturae,Stockholm,1768
82 Crystals (nets) from Linneaus,Systema Naturae,Stockholm,1768
83 Stereographic projection ofa crystal form from B.Gossner,Kristallberechnung und
Kristallzeichnung,Leipzig and Berlin,1914
84 Rhomboid from L.ANecker,‘Observations on some Remarkable Phænomena seen in
Switzerland; and an Optical Phænomenon which Occurs on Viewing a Figure ofa Crystal or
Geometrical Solid’,London and Endinburgh,1832
85 Zöllner’s illusion from Hermann von Helmholtz,Handbuch der Physiologischen Optik,
Hamburg and Leipzig,1910
86 Poggendorff’s illusion from M.Luckiesh,Visual Illusions: Their Causes,Characteristics and
Applications,London,1922
87 Hering’s illusion from H.von Helmholtz,Handbuch der Physiologischen Optik,
Hamburg and Leipzig,1910
88 Müller-lyer’s illusion from H.von Helmholtz,Handbuch der Physiologischen Optik,
Hamburg and Leipzig,1910
89 Thiery’s illusion from M.Luckiesh,Visual Illusions: Their Causes,Characteristics and Applications,
London,1922
90 Theo van Doesburg,‘Une nouvelle dimension pénètre notre conscience scientifique et
plastique’from De Stijl,1927
91 Theo van Doesburg and Cornelis van Eesteren,Maison particulière,1923
92 Theo van Doesburg and Cornelis van Eesteren,Maison particulière,1923
93 Theo van Doesburg and Cornelis van Eesteren,Maison particulière,1923
viii
List ofIllustrations
94 Theo van Doesburg and Cornelis van Eesteren,Maison particulière,1923
95 Theo van Doesburg,Architectural Analysis,1923,(a.ka.‘Architecture: Private House,
Counter-Construction’in De Stijl,1924,a.k.a.‘Elementary Expressional Means ofArchitechture’
in Principles ofNeo-Plastic Art,1925)
96 Theo van Doesburg,Fundamental ofArchitecture,1922 (a.ka.‘The Elementary Expressional
Means ofSculpture’in Principles ofNeo-Plastic Art,1925)
97 Bart van der Leck,Composition No.5 (Donkey Riders)from De Stijl,1917
98 Charles Howard Hinton,‘Six Cubic Sections ofthe Tesseract’from The Fourth Dimension,
London,1904
99 ‘Six Surrounding Cubes’from Charles Howard Hinton,The Fourth Dimension,London,1904
100 An arrangement ofseven cubes from Claude Bragdon,Projective Ornament,Rochester NY,1915
101 ‘Corresponding developments and projections ofa cube and ofa tesseract in lower spaces’
from Claude Bragdon,Projective Ornament,Rochester NY,1915
102 Theo van Doesburg,‘From Neo-plasticisme to Elementarisme’from De Stijl,1927
103 El Lissitzky,SelfPortrait (The Constructor),photomontage,1924
104 El Lissitzky,letterhead,1924
105 El Lissitzky,Geometric Composition (Proun 88),1925
106 El Lissitzky,magazine cover for Veshch,Berlin,1922
107 El Lissitzky,Kestner Portfolio,title page,1923
108 El Lissitzky,advertisement design for Pelikan ink,photomontage,1924
109 El Lissitzky,‘Vitrion’from Six Tales with Easy Endingsby Ilya Ehrenburg,Berlin,1922
110 El Lissitzky,formula for Nasci,from Merz,1924
111 El Lissitzky,Kestner Portfolio,cover,1923
112 El Lissitzky,Self-portrait,photomontage,1924
113 El Lissitzky,design for ‘Schifs Karta’from Six Tales with Easy Endingsby Ilya Ehrenburg,
Berlin,1922
114 El Lissitzky,‘Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge’,lithograph,1919
115 Albrecht Dürer,Melencolia I,engraving,1514
116 Ernst Mössel’s interpretation ofAlbrecht Dürer’s woodcut St Michael Fighting the Dragon
(Apocalypse,c.1497) from Vom Geheimnis der Form und der Urform des Seins,Stuttgart,1938
117 Ernst Mössel’s interpretation ofAlbrecht Dürer’s woodcut The Beast with Two Horns like a Lamb
(Apocalypse,c.1497) from Vom Geheimnis der Form und der Urform des Seins,Stuttgart,1938
118 JosefAlbers,Two Supraportas (Structural Constellations),stainless steel,
Westfälisches Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kultur,1972
119 JosefAlbers,drawing (sc1257),not dated
120 JosefAlbers working on Transformations ofa Scheme,New Haven,1950
(photo: Rudy Burkhardt)
121 JosefAlbers,index to an album ofStructural Constellations(sc665),not dated
122 JosefAlbers,Scheme for Transformations ofa Scheme(sc311),not dated
123 JosefAlbers,study for Structural Constellation(sc604),not dated
124 Schematic diagrams ofStructural Constellations
125 ‘The eight limiting cases ofthe octahedroid’from E.Jouffret,Triaté elementaire de géométrie à
quartre dimensions,Paris,1903
126 ‘Sinbad Pushes Asunder the Tesseract Cubes Trying to Find the Fourth Dimension’from
Claude Bragdon,The Frozen Fountain: essays on architecture and the art ofdesign in space,
New York,1932
ix
I On Constellation and Interpretation:
An exchange between Walter Benjamin and Theodor W.Adorno
Universal history has no theoretical armature.Its method is additive; it musters a mass
ofdata to fill the homogeneous,empty time.Materialistic historiography,on the other
hand,is based on a constructive principle.Thinking involves not only the flow of
thoughts,but their arrest [Stillstellung] as well.Where thinking suddenly stops in a
configuration [Konstellation] pregnant with tensions,it gives that configuration a shock,
by which it crystallises into a monad.Ahistorical materialist approaches a subject only
where he encounters it as a monad.In this structure he recognises the sign ofa Messianic
cessation [Stillstellung] ofhappening,or,put differently,a revolutionary chance in the
fight for the oppressed past.He takes cognisance ofit in order to blast a specific era out
ofthe homogeneous course ofhistory_blasting a specific life out ofthe era,or a specific
work out ofthe lifework.1
This startling passage from Walter Benjamin’s ‘Theses on the Philosophy ofHistory’,the last
piece he wrote (1940),can be regarded as a memorandum for the work he never achieved.
With the invocation ofcessation,Benjamin formulates not his methodology but its criterion:
that by which the work is translated into a task; a criterion, moreover, which makes clear
what he felt was at stake.The burden ofmethodology falls on Konstellation,making it more
than a mere metaphor.Indeed,the very object ofhistoriography,here named ‘monad’,is pre-
cipitated from the constellation and not otherwise.
In a different formulation, from a draft found among Benjamin’s materials for the
Arcades Project in the folder labelled ‘On the Theory of Knowledge, Theory of Progress’,
monad is substituted by the term ‘dialectical image’,a notion apparently elaborated during
conversations between Benjamin and Theodor W.Adorno in 1929.2
The immobilisation ofthought is as much a part ofthinking as its movement.When
thought comes to a standstill in a constellation [Konstellation] saturated with tensions,
there appears the dialectical image.It is the caesura [Zäsur] in the movement ofthought.
Its place is certainly not arbitrary.In a word,one must seek out where the tension between
dialectical opposites is the greatest.The object thus constructed in the materialist presen-
tation ofhistory is therefore the dialectical image.This is identical with the historical
object; it is the justification ofits being blasted from the continuum ofhistory.3
1 Walter Benjamin,‘Theses on the Philosophy ofHistory’,in Illuminations,ed.by Hannah Arendt,trans.by
Harry Zohn (New York: Schocken Books,1968),p.262–263.See Appendix A: original texts oftransla-
tions from the German cited in Part I.
2 See RolfTiedemann,‘Dialectics at a Standstill’,trans.by Gary Smith and André Lefevere in On Walter Benjamin:
critical essays and recollections,ed.by Gary Smith (Cambridge MAand London: MITPress,1988),pp.132–33 and
Susan Buck-Morss,The Origin ofNegative Dialectics (New York: Macmillan Free Press,1977),p.22.
3 Modified translation,cf.Walter Benjamin,Arcades Project,ed.by RolfTiedemann,trans.by Howard Eiland
and Kevin McLaughlin (Cambridge,MAand London: Belknap Press/Harvard University Press,1999) p.494.
1