Italian Futurism and “The Fourth Dimension” Linda Dalrymple Henderson During the first three decades ofthe twentieth century, artists in nearly every major modern ‘movement were influenced by ahighly popular concept known as “the fourth dimension.” In this period, “the fourth dimension” signified a higher, unseen dimension of space which might hol reality rer than tat of visual perception. Linked closely to the philosophical idealism ‘which dominated the era, belief in a fourth dimension encouraged bold, formal expert ‘mentation by liberating artists from the domi- nation of three-dimensional visual reality. If some artistic advocates ofa fourth dimension, such as the Cubist, did not reject visual per- ‘ception completely, Kupka, Malesch, Mondrian, ‘and Van Doesburg found support in the idea for their creation ofa totally abstract art. The Futurists Boccion! and Severini thus joined 2 distinguished list of artists attracted to “the fourth dimension,” a group ranging from Ana- [tcl and Synthetic Cubist aswell as Duchamp, Picabia, and Kupka, to Russian Futurists and Suprematists, American modernists in the ‘Steg and Arensberg circles, Dadass, mem- bers of De Stijl, and even certain Surrealist. The poplar, early twentieth-century view that space might indeed have more than three dimensions was an outgrowth ofthe develop- ment, during the first haf ofthe nineteenth century, of geometries of more than three dimensions, known a5 n-dimensional geometry? Although higher dimensions of space were first brought to public attention in the later nineteenth century by debates about the nature geometrical axioms andthe nature of space, ‘the fourth dimension” quickly acquired mu- ‘merous noa- geometric associations as well. In England, for example, the author Charles Howard Hinton developed a system of “hyper- space philosophy,”* based on his belief that the answer tothe evils of positivism and mate- rilism was for man to develop his powers of intuition in order to perceive a fourth dimen- Fig. 1 Pablo Picaso, Ponait of Ambroise Vall, 1910 oi on canvas Hoscou, Pushin Museum sion of space, the true realy. The fourth ‘dimension also took on specifically mystical ‘qualities when adopted by certain Theosophists and spiritualist; it functioned inthis way in the ‘writings ofthe major hyperspace philosophers descended from Hinton—P. D. Ouspensky in Russia and Claude Bragdon inthe United Stats. ‘The first artistic applications of a spatial fourth dimension were developed in Paris in the years around 1910, andthe Cubist iterature in which they were set forth had an impact on all subsequent theorizing on the subject. Al- though Picasso's Cubism evolved from his in terest in Cézanne and African art, his step to ‘mature Analytical Cubism was unquestionably encouraged by his era's belief in a reality beyond immediate visual perception. The con- Fig. 2 Perspective cavalieejrom B joule, ‘Trait élémentaire de géométre & quatre dimensions (Pars, 1903), Fig. 47 ceptual nature of African art was the speciic factor that encouraged Picasso as he said, “to paint objects as think them, not 2s 1 see them.” For the theorists Metinger, Glezes, and Apollinare, on the ther hand, the fourth dimension served asthe major rationale for 2 Cubist painter's freedom to distort or deform objects according toa higher law, as well 2s for hs rejection of perspective. As Apollinare ‘wrote on the subject of form in 1912, “Its to the fourth dimension alone that we ove a new ‘norm ofthe prfect."6 Apolinare’s reference in Les Peintres Cube istes of 1913 to perspective as “that miserable tricky perspective, that fourth dimension in reverse” confirms the specific connection of the fourth dimension with Cubist pictorial space as wel as with form, The ambiguous space of work such as Picasso's Portrait of Ambroise Vollard of 1910 offers a striking parallel to a Winter 1981 307contemporary illustration in a textbook on four-dimensional geometry by E.Joutret, pub- lished in Paris in 1903 (Figs. 1 and 2). Although not the source of Piasso’s Cubist style, such illustrations would have confirmed the diretion in which Cubism was developing Both images seek to avoid a traditional three- dimensional reading of objects and space. Moreover, multiple viewpoints of the object are juxtaposed, just as Henri Poincaré had suggested in his text La Science et yposbese (1902), in a discussion ofa possible means to represent a four-dimensional object. In fac, the explanation by Metinger and Glezes in Du Cubisme (1912) that the Cubist painter moves around his subject, gathering multiple views of itin order to produce a truer image, is based (on Poincaré’s connection of taile and motor sensations withthe possible perception of higher spatial dimensions.* ‘The method ofthe Cubist panier then, was analogous to that of 2 geometer striving t0 achieve a perception of «higher dimensional object. If motion in time was involved in the process, it was only incidental to the artists pursuit of four-dimensional space. Yet within the tradition of a spatial fourth dimension there had developed, by the end of the nine- teenth century, a second approach to higher dimensions, an approach in which time and ‘motion played a positive role. However, authors such as Hinton, who included time’in their explanations of the fourth dimension, were not returning to the suggestion made in the eighteenth century that time itself could be defined as a fourth dimension.° Tht idea was to gain widespread acceptance once again only afier 1919 with the popularization of Einstein's General Theory of Relativity based (na four-dimensional space-time condnuum.'© During the nineteenth and early twentieth cen tures, however, the interpretation ofthe fourth dimension as time was almost completely over shadowed by enthusiasm about a higher spatial dimension, perpendicular to the three dimen sions we know. Thus, Hinton believed firmly in the existence of a fourth dimension of space and argued that time and motion were incom- pletely understood manifestations ofthat add tional spatial dimension Hinion's theoretical writings centered about the four-dimensional hypercube, or tesseract, the higher dimensional analogue ofthe cube (Fig. 3, lower right). Just asa cube can be generated by the motion ofa two-dimensional plane through a third dimension, a hypercube would be traced by the motion of a three- dimensional cube into anew, fourth perpen- dicular direction. Given the difficulty of visual ining the four-dimensional appearance ofthis figure, even in athree-dimensional perspective projection (Fig. 3, lower left), a reversal of tis process was more effective for Hinton’s purposes. As a result, he concentrated on the three-dimensional sections which would be produced asa four-dimensional object passed 318 ArtJournal mone Fig. 3 Claude Bragdon, Plate 3 rom & Primer cof Higher Space (The Fourth Dimension) (Rochester, NY, 1913) ee si Fig. 5 Frontispiece (London and New York, 1904). through our three dimensional space. To explain this process, Hinton and others frequently used the analogy ofa planar world ‘of two dimensions and the reactions of is inhabitants to three-dimensional solids passing trough the plane (Fig. 4). Such an event had also formed the basis ofthe first fictional tale based on higher dimensions, the Englishman EA. Abbotts delightful book of 1884, Flat- land: A Romance of Many Dimensions by a 3" AS a sphere intersected his plane, Abbotts atlander perceived ony a suecession ‘of concentric circles, first growing and then decreasing in size. These circles, experienced in time and motion, were his only clues to the nature ofthe three-dimensional sphere."® AS Tous NEON MAY BE MANURE ep rencuat aan wonat mou. Boo ones asco matin Gp ron cunenecnce NTO TA oeseeees0 O° Fig. 4 Claude Bragdon, Plate 14 from APrimet of Higher Space (1913). from Charles Howard Hinton, The Fouth Dimension the four to three-dimensional analogue of this process, Hinton created a series of mulicclored cubes standing forthe three-dimensional sec- tions of the hypercube, which would be per- ceived in succession 2 it passed through our space. Te illustration reproduced here (ig. 5) includes six ofthe twelve catalogue cubes for Hinton's sistem, as it was presented in his book The Fourth Dimension (1904). Hyperspace philosophy’s two complemen- tary approaches to higher dimensional space (motion 10 generate a higher solid and, in reverse, the sectioning ofthat sold bya space of one ess dimension) are relevant for arts whose theoretical references to the fourth dimension occurred inthe context ofa motion-‘Pig. 7 Frantiob Kupha, Untitled drawing, ca, 1910, graphite pencil om paper. Paris, Collection Karl Flinker. oriented style. Kupka’s painterly experiments, inspired by the chronophotography of Etienne Jules Marey (Fig. 6), appear to have taken on 4 four-dimensional association for him once he was aware of Hinton's theoris.‘3 Most likely introduced to Hinton’sideas through the Parisian Theosophical publications in which they were summarized Kupka may have come to consider the forms generated in works such as Woman Picking Flowers (Musée National d'Art Modeme, Paris) anda related drawing of about 1910 (Fig. 7) s analogous to Hinion's ‘generation ofthe hypercube by motion in time. Fig. 8 Marcel Duchamp, Nude Descending a Siaitease, No. 2, 1972, oil on canvas. Philadelpbia Museum of drt, The Louise and Waller Arensborg Collector ‘The notation on the drawing, which Kupka ‘must have added in 1912, confirms his concern with these issues: “Displacement in three dimensions takes place in space, while that in four dimensions by the exchange of atoms. But to fix gesture, a movement in the space ofthe ‘canvas, —arrst several successive movements ‘This statement is drawn directy from a segment of Gaston de Pawiowsk’ tale “Voyage au pays de Ja quatriéme dimension," which appeared on the front page of Comoediaon May 20, 1912.'* Just as Kupka’s motion studies may have acquired a four-dimensional association, his young admirer Marcel Duchamp may have Connected his own experiments in the “static representation of movement" with the gen- eration of higher dimensional forms, Duchamp later talked of his Sad Young Man on a Train (1911) and the Nude Descending a Staircase (1912) (Fig. 8) as examples of his early interest in “elemental/elementary parallel- ism” and the “parallel multiplication of the ‘dim’l continuum to form the n-+1 dim'l continuum." Yet Duchamp, who knew the geometry of Jouffret as well as Hinton’s ideas, ‘must quickly have realized that there i nothi four dimensional about the motion ofan abject, unless it moves off into a new fourth direction (as Htnton's hypercube was to have done). As Duchamp later explained, “The movement of form in time inevitably ushered us into eome- 1912, oil on canvas. New Haven, Yale University drt Gallery try and mathematics." With this realization, Duchamp gave up his motion studies (as well as conventional oil painting) to carry out the ‘most serious study of four-dimensional geom- etry undertaken by any early twentieth-century artist, a study which culminated in The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even (The Large Glass) of 1915-1923. similar rejection of motion in three-dimen- sional space was made by Kazmir Maleich alter he painted his one example inthis mode, The Knife Grinder of 1912 (Fig-9) 2 Male- Vich’s exploration of sequential motion inthis work was most likely influenced by Léger's Essai pour les trois portraits of 1911 (Mil waukee Art Center) which was exhibited inthe Jack of Diamonds exhibition in Moscow in February 1912. Léger’s own subile explora- tion of motion inthis painting may well have been inspired by the chronophotography fash jon, reinforced by the Unanimiste poet Jules Romains's belief in the interpenetration of ‘object in nature, as well s by Henri Bergson's description ofa realty influx within the flow of duration Yet, Bergson himself had rejected Winter 1981 319the chronophotograph and the cinematograph For him such “snapshot views} ofa transi- tion"? were antithetical to the continuous, pure time of duration. Thus, the chronophoto- graphically inspired records of the motion of three-dimensional objects painted by Kupka, Duchamp, Malevich, and Léger were not four- dimensional nor, if one were content o pursue Bergsonian duration alone, were thev truly Bergsonian, Enter the Futurist painter and sculptor Umberto Boccioni. In the second technique suggested by hyperspace philosophy (ie, the visualization of a four-dimensional object by means of its successive three-dimensional sections), Boccioni was to find an alternative approach tothe problem ofthe fourth dimen- sion. This solution, he believed, was far supe- rior to the Cubist" pure geometrical method as well as t0 the chronophotographic views that even his countryman Giacomo Balla had explored in such works as Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash of 1912. (Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo) Although Boccioni’s earlier writings had regularly included numerous positive refer- ences to mathematics and science, and al- ‘though Italy was one of the most prolific sources of scholarly literature on the fourth dimen- sion,2 it seems that Boecion's artistic interest in the topic was aroused only through his connections with the art world of Paris. Mai neti’s frequent presence in Paris from the 1890s onward and his acquaintance wth Alfred Jarry and Apollinare?* might have provided ‘an initial introduction to the idea. More impor- tant, however, was the position ofthe Futurist Severini inthe midst ofthe Cubist avant-garde When Boccioni and Carra traveled to Paris in October 1911, as prelude to their Bernheim- Jeune exhibition of February 1912, the studio visits Severini arranged included the atelier of Metzinger, who particularly impressed Boc- cioni.2* If Boccioni did not hear of the fourth dimension at that ime, his return trip to Paris in February and November 1912 and in June 1913 for his sculpture exhibition would have afforded ample opportunity to discuss the no- tion. For example, Boccioni wrote ois friend Nino Barbantni from Paris in February 1912, describing the goal of his new painting in terms of a “spiitalization [which] will be given by pure mathematical values, by pure geometrical dimensions In addition, the first major statement of Cubist views onthe fourth dimension was soon tobe published by Apollinaire in an article of April 1912 in Les Soirées de Paris, a text that formed the basis, for one chapter ofhis Les Peintres Cubistes of March 1913. Boccioni’s only major discussion ofthe role ofthe fourth dimension in Futurist art was wrt- ten and published intaly in December 1913.28 leas then included, with additions, in is text Pittura scultura futuriste (dinamismo plas tico), of 1914. In the final version Boccioni 320 Art Journal Fig. 10 Umberto Boccioni, Unique Forms of Continuity in Space, 1913, bronze New York, The Museum of Modern Ar ‘wrote as follows, introducing his ideas with a critique of earlier atempts at expressing dyna ‘ism in ar: Ie seems clear to me that this succession is not tobe found in repetition of legs, ams, and faces, a8 many people have stupidly believed, but is achieved through the in- tuitive search forthe unique form wbicb gives continuity in space. It's the for type which makes an object live ic the ‘niversal. Therefore, instead of the old- fashioned concept of sharp differentiation of bodies, instead ofthe modem concept ofthe Impressionists with their saison their repetition, thee rough indications of images, we would substitute a concept of dynamic continuity as unique form. And {ts not by acident that 1 say form and not line, since dymamic form isa species of fourth dimension in panting and sculp- ture, which cannot exist perfectly without the complete affirmation of the three di ‘mensions which determine volume: height, with, depth [remember having ead that Cubism with its breaking up of the object and unfolding ofthe parts of the objet on the flat suriace ofthe picture approached the fourth dimension. ... However, this pro cedure is nothing but the transcription onto the surface of the canvas, of the planes of the object which its accidental Pesition prevents us fom seeing, It is @ rational procedure which exis in elativ- ity, notin an inti absolute. The in tegral notion ofthe object exists, with this procedure, in the three concepts of height,SNe ce to Fig. 11 Umberto Boccion, Muscular Dynamism, 1913, charcoal on paper. New Yor, The Museu of Modern Art. ‘width, depth, thus I repeat, in the relative in the finite of mersuraton. If with the artistic intuition it sever possible to ap- proach the concept of fourth dimension, itis we Futurists who are geting thre frst In fact, withthe unique form which ives continuity in space we eeatea form hich isthe sum of the potential unfolding ofthe three known dimensions. Therefore, we cannot make a measured and finite fourth dimension, but rather a continuous projection of fores and forms intuted in their infinite unfolding In fat, the unique dynamic form which we proclaim is noth- ing othe than the suggestion of form in :motion which appears fora moment nly to be lost in the infinite succession ofits vatiey. In conclusion, we Futuris give the rethod for creating a conception more abstract and symbolic of reality, but we do not define the fixed and absolute measure which ereates dynamism Boccioni’s understanding ofthe fourth di- ‘mension was obviously far more dynamic than that ofthe Cubist, whose geometric approach he specifically rejected. Dynamism and, by implication, motion in time are essential ele ‘ments of his interpretation. Yet, Boccioni is careful to separate himself from the analyses of linear sequential motion painted by Kupka, Duchamp, and his fellow Futurist Balla, aswell a from the chronophotographic experiments of the Italian photographer Bragaglia, who tempted 10 embody Futurist tenets in his fotodinamismo.® Beyond his criticisms of the mistaken ap- proaches of others to higher dimensions, Boc- ions text provides several indirect clues to his own definition of the fourth dimension. Since “dynamic form is a species of fourth dimension” for Boccion, his iew ofthe noon must be closely related to “the unique form \which gives continuity in space,” the tie ofhis ‘most famous sculpture (Fig. 70). A four dimensional form for Boccioni is a “form- type” which transcends artificial divisions in space; in other words, it “gives continuity Boccioni’s fourth dimension is an absolute, ‘unmeasurable, infinite concep, 2s opposed to Cubism’ “measured and ite” fourth dimen- sion which is only relative in Boccioni's view Intuition and not “rational procedure” isthe ‘means by which the Futuris artist can approach this fourth dimension, which is “the sum of the potential unfolding of the three known dimensions.” Finally, in creating a “more ab- siract and symbolic” conception of reali, the Futurist will wisely avoid trying to define or delimit the fixed and absolute measure which creates dynamism.” ‘To explain Boccioni’s very different under- standing of the fourth dimension, his prior anistic concerns and his choice of different sources on the fourth dimension must be con- sidered. In the evolution of his artistic theory Boccioni had been particularly influenced by the philosophy of Bergson. Basic to his thinking, then, was a belief in a reality in constant Hux, to be intuited by each individual within the flow of duration. When Boccioni began to considera fourth dimension, he naturally pre- ferred interpretation involving time, the basic clement in Bergson's theories. Hyperspace philosophy, with is recognition of ime as a ‘means to higher spatial dimension, was ideally suited to Boccionis needs. Bergson himself had linked time with space, referring to “homo- ‘Reneous time" asa fourth dimension of space inhis Essai sur les données immédiates de a conscience of 1889.2 Significantly, however, Bergson had used the term ina negative sense, criticizing the mind's tendency to contaminate the pure flow of duration by spatilizing it Yet, for Boccioni the fourth dimension did imply higher spatial dimensions and was not simply time alone (as it would have had to be fora Bergsonian paris). Throughout Boocioni’s writings of the period from 1912 to 1914, there are frequent references to “anew inner reality," “an ideal, superior plane,"®* and the need of the artist to “render the invisible which stirs and lives beyond intervening ob- stacls."3® Boccionis fellow Futurist Severin, who was later to theorize extensively on the fourth dimension in the context of Synthetic Cubism, wrote in the fll of 1913 that “we must forget exterior reality and our knowledge of it in order to create the new dimensions .."*" ‘And Boccioni himself revealed a debt to Apol- linaire and Cubism’s spatial fourth dimension in his assertion that the fourth dimension “cannot exist perfectly without the complete alfrmation of the tree dimensions which deter- mine volume”—an echo of apollinaie's state- ment of 1912 that the fourth dimension “is engendered by the three known dimensions."5* ‘What then was the relationship of higher space to time and motion in Boccion's dynamic interpretation of the fourth dimension? His approach to hyperspace philosophy was not that of Kupka or Duchamp, who sought 10 generate a higher dimensional form by the ‘motion of a three-dimensional object through space. instead, if Boccioni was tall nflenced by the hyperspace philosophy of Hinton 3 or an Italian parallel, it was the reverse process, the passage of 2 higher dimensional form through our space, that interested him. The purpose of Hinton’ system of cubes had been to educate a reader's “space sense" in order for him to visualize this process. although the reader would actually perceive only the sections of the hypercube (its eight individual colored cubes in succession), he would hopefully ex- perience some intuition ofthe greater reality ofthe whole four-dimensional objec. Fig. 12 Intersection of Spiral and a Plane, _from Hinton, The Fourth Dimension (1904), pa. An analogy Hinton had used as early as 1888, and which was wellknown in this period, ‘was the notion of a hand with its ive fingertips placed on a table." two-dimensional being in the plane ofthe table would be unaware of the single “unique form” (the three-dimen- sional hand) “giving [the five separate fn serprints} continuity in [three-dimensional] space.” In other words, the hand would fune- tion as a higher dimensional fom, transcending the artificial dvsions between objects in space, divisions which Boccioni consisenly decried ‘Thus, Boccion’ striding figure, as depicted in sketches (Fig. 11), preparatory models, and a final sculprure, suggests the passage through our space of a four-dimensional figure (a unique form), whose successive states materialize and ddematerialze before our ees. As the Russian mystic Ouspensky would later argue, time and motion in three-dimen- sional space may be considered illusions that Winter 1981 321result only because of our incomplete percep- tion of space." Boccioni, the follower of Berg- son, would never have accepted this extreme view, however. Instead, he asserted the positive value of time and motion as the most effective indication ofa higher, dynamic reality further ‘comparison with Hinton is suggested by Boc- ions inteest in the spiral form as an innately dynamic shape possessing absolute motion, concern manifested in his writings and in Development of a Bottle in Space of 1912 (The Museum of Modern Art, New York)? In The Fourth Dimension Hinton had demon- strated the way in whic the illusion of circular ‘motion in a plane could result when a spiral sed through a plane (Fig. 12). In realty the “relative motion” ofthe point would be sub- sumed within the “absolute motion” ofthe spiral (its vertical movement ina third dimension) For Boccioni, then, the fourth dimension hhad both spatial and temporal implications, as, the “fixed and absolute measure which [a the same time] creates dynamism.” Nevertheless, Boccioni’s fourth dimension differs radically from that of Cubism, because ofits emphasis, ‘on time and motion. Itisa “continuing projec- tion of the forces and forms intuited in their infinite unfolding.” Boccioni’s goal in Unique Forms of Continuity in Space was a synthetic depiction of motion, a “synthetic continuity” as opposed to the “analytical discontinuity" of Kupka, Duchamp, and the 1912 works of Balla, or the Cubiss' simultaneous presentation of multiple views of an object. Undoubtedly, much of Boccioni’s sist development oc- curred independently of an interest in higher dimensions. However, when he attempted t0 bring his own theories into line with the wide- spread contemporary belief in a fourth dimen- sion of space, Boccioni found a suitable inter- pretation in one aspect of hyperspace philoso- phiy. His Unique Forms of Continuity in Space isatribute to higher dimensional space as well 438 tothe dynamic reality of Bergson. In the end, “the fourth dimension’ was far Jess integral to the at and theory of Boccion than it had been for the French Cubists or would be for artists such as Duckamp and Malevich, Nevertheless, it is a measure ofthe importance of the idea in this period that Boccioni fet that he must claim “the fourth dimension’ for Futurism and even turn it against his Cubist rivals. Linda Dalrymple Henderson is an assistant profesor of tbe histor of arta the University of Texas at Austin. She bas done extensive research on art and non-Buclidean ‘geometry and scholars are indebted to her ‘article in The Art Quarterly én 1971. Notes 1 The present essay is drawn from the author's forthcoming study of “the fourth dimension’ {nearly twentieth-century art and theory to be published by Princeton University Press. That Art Journal 322 text is a revised and considerably expanded version of “The ats, “The Fourth Dimension, ‘nd Non-Euelidean Geometry 1900 —1930: A Romance of Many Dimensions” (henceforth referred to as “The Arist. .."), @ doctoral dsertation completed a Yale Univers in 1975 2By the later nineteenth century, another ype of geometry, known as non-Euclidean geome try, also contributed to public intrest in alter- native kinds of space. Non-ucldean geometry, formulated by the mathematicians Labachesky, Bolyai, and Riemann, studies spaces of postive, negative, or variable curvature and i thus a totaly separate area of study from n-dimen sional geometry. though non-Buclieangeom: etry never enjoyed the widespread popularity of ‘the fourth dimension,” it did have an impact on several artists, including Metzinger and Gleies, Duchamp, and B! Listy. 3 The erm “hyperspace philoso ton’s but my own. It was invented in onde to distinguish te writings of individuals such as Hinton, the Rusian P.D. Ouspensky, andthe ‘American Claude Bragdon, all of whom explore the philosophical implications of higher di- mensions, from more straightforward exposi- tions of geometric fourth dimension Hinton's major theoretical tes are A New Bra of Thougt (London: Swan Sonnenschein & Co., 1888) and The Fourth Dimension (Landon: ‘Swan Sonnenschein & Co., 1904; New York: John Lane, 1904); in adtion, he published numerous articles and short stories based on the fourth dimension. 4 Picaso, as quoted in Ramén Gomer de la Sera, “Completa y vei historia de Picasso 7 el eubismo,” in Revita cde Oocidente Maid), vol. (July 1925), p. 100 5 Foran initial discussion of Cubist interest in the fourth dimension, ee Henderson, “A New Facet of Cubism: “The Fourth Dimension’ and ‘Non-Bucidezn Geomety’ Reintereted,” The Art Quarterly, vol. av (Winter 1971), pp. 410—38. The significance of higher dimen- sions for Cubist art and theory is dscused in far grater dealin Henderson, “The rts... Ch 6 Guillaume Apollinaire, “La Pinture nouvelle: Notes d'art,” Les Sires de Paris, no. 3 (ri 1912), pp. 90—91. 7 Guillaume Apollinare, Midiationsextbtiues: Les Peintres Cubistes (Pais: Eugene Figure, 1913). 68. 8.0n the importance of Poincaré’ ideas for Glezes and Metznge, se Henderson, "A New Facet of Cubism,” as well as Henderson, “The Att.” Ch. 9 D'Alembert published this idea in his 1754 article on “dimension” in the Encyclopédie ‘edited by himself and Diderot. Lagrange pre- sented a similar view in 1797 in his Théorie des fonctions analytiques: 10 Binstein bepan to atract public notice only in November 1919, when the result of experiments during a sola eclipse confirmed his assertion in the General Theory that ight waves ae bent by the mass of the sun, See, for example, Henderson, “A New Faoet of Cubism,” pp. 414—19, and Ronald W, Clatk, Bistfn: The ‘Life and Times (New York: World Publishing, 1971), pp. 227-6. 11 See Edin abbot bor, Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by a Square (London: Seley & Co, 1884) 1210 contrast to Bragdon's didactic diagram (ig. 4), a sphere passing perpendicularly through a plane would actually produce a succession of increasing and decreasing circles around a singe point in the plane. The clearest analysis ofthe relationship between space and ‘motion in imei to be found in eter Deriano- vich Ouspensly’s Tertium Organium: The ‘Third Ganon of Though, A Key to the Enigmas of the World (1911), trans, fom 2nd (1916) by Claude Bragdon and Nicolas Bes- saraboff, 2nd Amer. ed rev. (New York: Alfed ‘A Knop), hs. m—n. Ouspesty's philosophy and particularly his elaboration ofthe 1 dimensional analogy (Ch) is suramattzed in Henderson, “The Merging of Time and ‘Space: “The Fourth Dimension’ in Russia from ‘uspensky to Malevich,” The Structuri, no. 15/16 (1975/1976), pp. 97 —108 13 On Kupka and Marey, see Margit Rowell, “A Metaphysics of Abstraction,” in Pantin Rupa 41871-1975: A Retrspecive (Solomon R. Guggenfeim Museum, New York, 1975), p. 49—67. As Rowell points out, Marey actually experimented with the generation of three- mensional virtual volumes by photographing a rotting form (9.56). 14 See, for example, CW. Leadbeater, L'Auire (Gite de la mort (Pais: Edtions Thosiphiqus, 1910), which inchuded an account of Hinton's ideas. 15 Rowell ("A Metaphysics of Abstraction,” in Frantiv Kupha, . 66) fist noted the sirlar- ity of Kupka’s inscription to the following passage from Pawlowski’ “Voyage au pays de Ia quatrtme dimension” (Comoedia, 20 May 1912, p.D: ‘Whereas in three dimensional dspact- ment the atoms constituting a body are pushed aside and replaced by other atoms forming another body... ds- placement in the country ofthe fourth dimension is enacted by what one used to calla transmutation. The word of the fourth dimension being continous, ‘no movement inthe ordinary sense of the word can be produced asin the mobile world of thre dimensions. There fore a displacement is made through an exchange of qualities beween nigh- boring atoms... When one enters the ‘country ofthe fouth dimension, move- ment such as we know it, no longer exist; there ae only qualitative changes and we remain immobile, inthe cm- ‘mon sense ofthe word, 16 Duchamp, as quoted in “Eleven Buropeans in America (Interviews by James Johnson Sweene),