laszl6 moholy-nagy

The documents of modem ort: Director • Robert Motherwell

The New Visio n 1928 fourth revised edition 1947

and
Abstract of an Artist

Laszlo Moholy-Nagy

Wittenborn, Schultz, Inc. New Yorlc, 1947

w
Copyright, 19A7, by Wittenborn , Schultz, Inc.
38 Eost 57th Slree!, New Yorlt 22, N. Y.
Monuloclured in the United Stoles of America
by E. l. Hildreth ond Co., Brattleboro, Vermont.
Tht New Vision 1928
wos translated from the Germon by Daphne M. Hoffman
Frontispiece: L Moholy-Nogy, 19A6. Photo by Vorie1 foher
Co--ar ond typography by Poul Rand
Preface: It was in Berlin in 1922 that I first met Moholy·Nagy. Impressed by the char-
acter and direction of his work, 1 offered him o professorship ot the "Bauhaus," the
school of modem design which I hod founded ond was then directing at Weimar.
Moholy was one of my most active colleagues in building up the Bauhaus; much
that it accomplished stands lo his credit. The opportunities tho! the Bauhaus afforded
for orl of every kind must hove proved especially inspiring to a nature so versatile,
and a tolent so many-sided as Moholy's. He constantly developed new ideas. These
proved as fruitful to the school as to his own development. But his varied activities -
in photography, theater, films, typography, and advertising design -- neither diminished
nor disseminated Moholy's powers as a pointer. On the contrary, oil his successful
efforts in these mediums were simply indirect but necessary by-paths on his route to
the conquest of o new conception of space in painting. This conception is for me his
major contribution to the leadership of modern art. He succeeded in projecting vari-
ous interests into his pointing; he thus created a new pictorial unity, peculiar to himself.
His conception of spatial problems may be difficult to understand. We can perhaps
best explain the task of such on abstract pointer by the example of music. Like point-
ing, musical composition consists of form and content. But its form is only in port a
product of the composer, since, in order to make his musical ideas comprehensible to
any third person, he makes use of counterpoint, which is o convention agreeing to
divide the world of sound info certain intervals specified by fixed lows. These laws of
counterpoint, harmony, and scales vary among different peoples and epochs, and
5
changes ore slow; rhot is, they are not confined lo individuals. In earlier days the
visual arts also hod estoblished firm lows, o counterpoint regulating the structure of
space. The ort academies that hod the task of keeping up ond developing these rules
somehow forgot them, and ort decoyed. The abstract pointers of our day hove used
their creative powers to establish o new counterpoint of space, o new vision. Th:s is
the core of their achievement. In the history of pointing, the content of what is portrayed
recedes before the more important problem. of space. Consider how long i: took for
the po1n1er 10 master the s:rudure of perspective 1n pictures. Our artistic conception
hos now developed further. Todoy we ore confronted by new problems, e.g., the
fourth dimension ond the simultaneity of events, ideas foreign lo former periods, bul
inherent in a modem conception of space. The artist often senses o coming discovery
before its advent Science now speaks of a fourth dimen,ion in spoce, which meons !he
introduction of on element of time into space. Before the first World War, futurist and
cubist artists were already attempting to introduce movement into action, lhol is, the
actual passing of time into hitherto static pictures For example, Delounoy s well-known
picture The Eiffel Tower wos intended to be o pictorial representation of the sensa-
tions of o passenger going up the Eiffel Tower in the elevator of impressions which
follow one another in space.
From this notion to a picture by Moholy is o long stop forward on lhe way to the
conquest of space. Moholy soon recognized that we con comprehend space best b
means of light. His work hos been o mighty bottle to prepare the woy for o new vision;
he has attempted to extend the boundaries of pointing, and to increase the intensity
of light in the picture by the use of new technical means, which approximate the in
tensity of light in no'ure. Moholy hos observed and registered light with the eye of the
camera from the perspective of the frog and the bird; he hos tried to master his im
pressions of space ond lo transform them into new spatial relationships in his painting
and in his other works. To quote his own words, a creation in space is ''on interweovin
of ports of space, which ore anchored in invisible, but clearly traceable relations, on Contents:
in the nuctuoting ploy of forces. This indeed describes his pictorial creations.
A thinker ond educator, Moholy felt the urge to find objective definitions for th POG• 5: Preface by Wolter Gropius
new space conception which hod sprung up from his work and that of other conte
porory leaders. Early in 1928 he wrote "Von Material zu Arch1tektur" (Alber! Lange
8: Biographical chronology, Bibliography of L. Moholy-Nogy, Books on the Bauhaus
Verlag, Munchen) which is based on his educational experience and lectures at th
Bauhaus between 1923 and 1928. A revised English edition, published under th
91 The New Vision
title 'The New Vision' (Brewer, Warren & Putnam, Inc., New York, 1930, and W. W
Norton, New York, 1938) hos long been out of print. The increasing demand for this
book, which hos been so stimulating and helpful lo students of modern art and design 10: Forewords to lhe second ond third English editions
hos brought about the issue of lhe present new, revised, and greolly enlarged edition 13: Introduction
"The New Vision" hos proved to be more than o personal credo of on artist. It h
14: I. Preliminaries
become a standard grammar of modern design Wolter Gropi
23: 11. The material (surface treatment, pointing)
41: Ill. Volume (sculpture)
56: IV. Space (architecture)

65: Abstract of an Artist

89: Obituary note by Walter Gropius
90: Index

6
l6szlo Moholy-Nagy
1895 b., Borsod, Hungary.
1915 after law studies at the University of Budapest, turns to painting and writing.
1916 Budapest. Co-founder of the review "Jelenkor".
Member of Hungarian art group "MA" .
1920- Berlin. Co-founder of Constructivism. First photograms (cameraless photog-
1923 raphy) 1921. Writing for "MA", "De Stijl", " Cahiers d 'art", etc. Co,
author, "Buch Neuer Kunstler" (Vienna, 1922), on anthology of modem art
1923- Weimar, Dessau. Professor in the Bauhaus. Co-editor (with Walter Gropius
1928 of the 14 Bauhaus books, and the quarterly, "Bauhaus". Co-founder an
editor of the international art review "i 1 O" (Amsterdam, 1926).
1928- Berlin. Experiments with new materials: galalith, trolit, cellon, rhodaid
1934 enamel, aluminum, etc. Typographical work. Settings for Piscator's theale
and for the State Opera, Berlin. Abstract movie "Light Display, Black an
White and Gray" (1930).
1935- London. Exhibitions of paintings, sculpture, and photographs. Makes " Lob
1937 sters", one of the "ten best films" of 1936. Special effects for H. G. Wells
fllm "Things to Come".
1937 Director of Institute of Design, Chicago.
1946 d., Chicago.

Bibliography: Books by Moholy-Nagy:

"Horizont .. , Vienna, 1921
' 'Buch Neuer Kunsller' ' (with L. Kossak), Vienna, 1922
"Malerei-Fotografie-Film' ', Munich, 1925
"Die Bohne im Bauhaus" (with Oscar Schlemmer), Munich, 1925
"Von Material zu Architektur", Munich, 1929 (transl. as " The New Vision" The New Vision:
Brewer, Warren and Putnam, N. Y., 1930; 2nd ed., W.W. Norton, N. Y., 1938
3rd, completely revised edition, with "Abstract of an Artist", Wittenborn on
Compony, N. Y., 1946)
"Fototek'' (60 photos), Berlin, 1929
"Telehor", Brno, 1936
"The Streetmorket of London" (with Mary Benedetta), London, 1936
"Eton Portrait" (with Bernard Ferguson), London, 1936
"Oxford University Chest" (with John Betjeman), London, 1937
"Vision in Motion", Paul Theobald, Chicago, 1947

Books on the Bauhaus:

Waller Gropius, "The New Architecture and the Bauhaus" , N. Y., 1936
Herbert Bayer, Walter Gropius and lse Gropius (editors), "Bauhaus, 1919-1928",
N. Y., 1938

e
foreword t o the third English e d ition: The New Vision wos written in the years
1925-28, and published n ~his co ntry ·n '930 and 1938. Though the lost e~ihon was
quickly exhausted, I did not press ·or further printings because I was planning o new
book in which I intended to report on the results of my work in recent years. My tasks,
however, os director of the Institute of Design, Chicago, hove taken up my time lo the
extent !hot I hove no! os yet been able to publish my new book. The requests for a
reprint of "the new vision" steadily increased, the publishers and I hove therefore
decid don this new edition supplementing it with the "Abstract of on Artist."
• Since 1938 when the new vision" was lost published, great chonges hove toke
ploce. The ln~titute of Design, Chicogo, which continued the Bouhaus e~uc~tion an
adapted it to the American scene, is now six years old. II hos proved its v1toltty .b
attracting o large number of students to its regular day classes as well as lo ev.e~in
classes and the summer sessions, and by sending its graduates to important positions
Its Boord of Trustees is composed of c1v1c ond industrial leaders of the city of Chicago
ond its classes serve the great Chicogo firms in industry ond commerce.
The interest 1n the creotive educational approach of the Institute 1s constantly grow
ing. This is attested by a steady flow of visitors from oil over the countr~..l~tereste
laymen, professionals and 1ndustr1al1sts come to the school lo see its exh1b11tons an
to study the efforts of its faculty and students. . This book contains an abstract of the work in our preliminary course, which natura lly
With their help and that of other responsible citizens I hope that in a not too drston
future we shall be able to build a new campus. There the ideas of the Institute con
realized with greater clarity, crystallizing o new creative education that strives t
integrate the best that mankind con offer to youth.
• As on oppe"d'x •his edition conlo1ns the brief essay, never hitherto pub11shcd, e
titled "Abstract of on Artist." It is on attempt to picturo the feelings, thoughts on
efforts upon which my artistic development hos been based. L.M.-N. Ch co90, 19
fo reword to the second English edition: The New Vision was written to infor
laymen and artists about the basic elemenl of the Bauhaus education: the merging
theory and practice in design.
In its experimental stole this school could serve only a smell group ol students. Th
great ma jority of those interested hod to rely on incidental information. It was main!
for them that lhe foutteen old Bauhaus Books were published in Germany. The impo
lance of these publications become greater in 1933, when tho Bauhaus wos close
by the Germon Notional Socialist Government; these books then remained the onl
authentic records of fourteen years of educational work.
Now 0 new Bauhaus is founded on American soil. America is the bearer of a ne
civilization whose task is simultaneously lo cultivate and lo industrialize o continen
It is the ideal ground on which to work out on educational principle which strives f
the closest connection between art, science, and technology.
10
To reach this objective one of the problems of Bauhaus education is to keep olive in
grown-ups the child's sincerity of emotion, his truth of observation, his fantasy and his
creativeness. That is why the Bauhaus does not employ a rigid teaching system. Teachers
and students in close collaboration ore bound to find new ways of handling materials,
tools, ond machines for their designs. The characteristic pioneer spirit which we find
unimpaired in our American students admirably serves this lask. In view of the new
culture which now constitutes our background and of the foci that two decodes have
elapsed since the foundation of the first Bauhaus, the program of the school in America
hos been slightly altered. In the new Institute os well as in the old, however, the pre-
liminary course is considered os a fundamental port of the training. Here the student
tests his abilities, and experiences his first contact with the kind of work in which he
will later specialize. Here the tendencies of his aesthetic orientohon and his creative
ob1li1tes for proct cal work ore directed, and o path is cleared through the bewildering
multitude of ad "isms.'' Intensive and repeated pre-occupation with the elements of
creation heightens his discrimination between dilettantish and superficial design on one
side, and funcllonol organic design on the other. It is the procltcol exercise, and the
pleasure in sensory experiences which lead him to a security of feeling, and later to
the creation of objects which will satisfy human needs that ore spiritual as well os
utilitarian.
develops from doy to day in practice.
The work of the Bouhous would be loo limited 1f this preliminary course served only
Bauhaus students; they, because of constant contact with instructors, and with practical
workshop experience, ore least in need of its record in book form. More important -
one might soy the essential condition - for the succe» of the Bauhaus idea is the edu-
cation of our contemporaries outside the Institute. II is th• public which must come to
understand and to aid in furthering the work of designers, if their creativeness is to
yield the best results for the community. To prepare this understanding is the main task
of The New Vision It is my hope that it will stimulate those who ore interested in ort,
research, design, and education.
A brief account of the Bauhaus may be found in the "Hondbuch der Arbe1tswissen-
schoft,' edited by Dr. Fritz Giese (Morhold Verlogsbuchhandlung, Halle-S.) under the
heading Bauhaus Work. In the Bauhaus book "Stoolliches Bauhaus in Weimar
1919-1923," Wolter Gropius discussed thoroughly the Course of the Bauhaus Work.
Finally his book "The New Architecture ond the Bauhaus," published by the Museum
of Modern Ari, New York, is the best source 1n English. L.M.-N. 1938.
II
 Introduction: At ony given moment man's position is defined by everything he does.
This position is determined by hts biological nature and by his participation in o given
One can never culture. This is quite oport from his personal sotisfoction, which is grounded in the
successful expression of his emotional pattern. This expression will be fruitful if it
experience art through carries with it on · objedive meaning for all people. Upon this depends his contribu-
tion to the development of culture.
The more he con approximate the standards which actualize that ob1ective quality,
descriptions. the greater his contribution will be. The individual s emotional existence flows here into
historical continuity; the actual and momentary ore transcended in the permanent
Explanations and analys structure of civilization.
In art education at present we ere striving toward those timeless biological funda-
mentals of expression which ore meaningful lo everyone. This is the flrst step to creative
can serve at best production before the meaning of any culture (the values of on historical development)
con be introduced. We ore not, therefore, immediately interested in the personal qual-
as intellectual preparatio ity of expression which is usually coiled "art," but In its primordial, basic elements, the
ABC of expression ilself.
This does not mean that "art" is put aside, nor that the values within its domain are
They may, however, to be questioned. On the contrary, it is precisely these values which ore firmly anchored
in the biological. Still, for the majority of people this foci is obscured by o tendency to
encourage one to make regard art as something unique ond entirely md1viduolistic.
We observe art because of its basic and common roots permeating life. We shall
attempt to clarify fhem - at least in their essential points - without distressing our-
a direct contact selves unduly if at times we must make o detour in opprooching the center of the prob-
lem, i.e., orticuloting the means of expression. From there we may then proceed to
their individual interpretation.
with works of art.
13
I. Preliminaries
Se ctors of human development. A human being is de ·eloped by the crystallizoli
of the whole of his experience. Our present system of education contradicts this oxio
by emphasizing single fields of activity.
Instead of extending our realm of action, os primitive mon wos forced lo do, sine
he combined in one person hunter, craftsman, builder, and physician, we concern otl
selves with a single specific vocation, leaving other capacities unused.
Th" pr im;! •c ma!\ combined '" one peuon hunler. croftsmon, builder, phyi1c1on,
erc.1 1odoy ,.e concern ourselves only w•lh ont definite occupot on, leo"ng unused
a ll othe· locult' es
Todoy tradition and authority intimidate mon. He no longer do res venture into oth
fields of experience. He becomes o man of one colling; he has no longer first-hon
experience elsewhere. His self-assurance 1s lost. He no longer dares to be his ow
healer, nor trust his own eyes. Specialists - like members of o powerful secret socie
- block the rood to many-sided individual experience, the need of which arises fro
man's biological existence.
The choice of o calling is often determined by outside factors: a man becomes
candy-maker or a cabinet-maker because !here is o shortage of apprentices tn tho
trodes; he becomes o lawyer or o manufacturer because he con lake over his fo:her
business.
Tho accent lies on the sharpest possible development of o single vocation, on the
building of spE'cialized faculties. "Market demand" is the criterion. A mon becomes o
locksmith or o lawyer or an architect fworking inside o closed sodor o I- is foc1.1lties),
and if, after he hos finished his studies, he strives lo widen the field of his colling,
aspires to expand his special sector, he is ol best a happy exception.
Here our system of education hos been found wonting, despite vocotionol 9uidonce,
psychological testing, and l.Q.'s.
A "colling" today means something quite different from following ones own bent,
something quite different from solidarity with the aims and needs of o community.
Everything functions - and functions alone - on the basis of a production system
which only recognizes motives of material gain. One's personal life must, then go
along outside one's "colling," which is often a molter of compulsion, ond regarded
with aversion.
The future needs the whole man . Specialized training cannot yet be abandoned
ot a time when production is being p ton on economic basis. But i· 'lho Id not begin
so soon or be carried so far that the individual become~ stunted - in spite or his highly
prized professional knowledge. A specioli;zed education becomes meaningful only if
on integrated man is developed in terms of his biological functions, so that he will
achieve a natural balance of intellectual ond emotional power. Without such on aim the
richest differentioltons of specialized study - tho "privilege" of the adult - ore mere
quontilolive acquisitions, bringing no inlensifkotion of life, no widening of its breadth.
Only men equipped with clarity of feeling and sobriety of knowledge will be able to
odtust to complex requirements, and to master the whole of life.
The present system of production. Our modern system of production is imposed
labor, o senseless pursuit, and, in its social aspects, without pion; its motive is to squeeze
out profits lo the '1mit. This in most coses is a reversal of its original purpose.
The chase ofter money ond power inOuences the form of life, even the individual's
basic feelings He thinks of outward security, instead of his inner satisfactions. On top
of this is the penning up of city people in treeless barracks, in on extreme contraction
of living space. This cramping of living space is not only physical: city life hos brought,
with its herding into barren buildings without adequate open space, on emotional
choking of the inhobitonts.
Today neither education nor production springs from inner urges, nor from urges to
make goods which satisfy one's self ond society in o mutually complementary way.
The educational system is the result of the economic structure. During the frenzied
march of the industrial revolution, industrialists set up specialized schools in order to
turn out needed specialists quickly. These schools in very few instances favored the
development of men's power They offered them no opportunity lo penetrate to ihe
essence of things, or to the individual himself. But - to tell the truth - no one was
concerned with this because no one could foresee the destructive results.
Not only the working doss ftnds itself in this position today; all those caught within
the mechanism of the present economic system ore basically, os badly off. At best the
differences ore moteriol ones
But how about technical progress? II might be easily supposed therefore that the
present system of industrial production, ond especially our technical progress, ought to
be condemned. Numerous writers and polilicions suggest this. But they mix effect with
cause. In the XIXth cen•ury attempts were mode to reach o correct diagnosis, but
15
suggested o wrong therapy. Gottfried Semper declared in the 1850's, for example, that
if iron ever was to be used in building it would hove to be used !because of the real
nature of iron) in the fashion of the transparent spider-web. But, he continued, archi-
tecture must be "monumental," and thus "we never shall have on iron-architecture."
A similar mistake was made by the Ruskin-Morris circle in the 1880's. They found that
industrial moss production killed quality of craftsmanship. Their remedy was to kill
the machine in tum, and go bock 10 handwork. They opposed machines so strongly that,
in order to deliver their hand-made products lo London, they ran o horse coach along-
side the hated railway. In spite of this rebellion against the machine, technical progress
is o factor of life which develops organically. It stands in reciprocal relation to the
increase in number of human beings. Here is its real justification. Despite its distortion
by profit interests, by struggle for mere accumulation and the like, we con no longer
think of life without technical progress. It is on indispensable factor in raising the
standard of living.
The possibilities of the machine - its abundant production, its ingenious complexity
on the one hand, its sirnplifkotion on the other, have necessarily led lo a moss production
which hos its own significance. The task of the machine - satisfaction of mass require-
ments - must be held in the future more and moro clearly In mind. The true source of
conflict between life ond technical progress lies ot this point. Not only the present
economic system, but also the process of production coll for improvement from the
ground up. Invention and systematization, planning ond social responsibility must be
applied to this end.
A common error today is to view questions of efficiency from o technical and profit
standpoint. The Taylor system, the conveyor belt, and the like remain misinterpreted
os long os they tum man into a machine, without toking into account his biological
requirerl'ents - work, recreation, ond leisure.
Not against technical progress, but with it. The solution lies, accordingly, not in
working against technical advances, but in exploiting them for the benefit of all. Mon
con be freed through •e<:hniques, if he finally realizes their function: i.e., o balanced
life through full use of our liberated energies.
Only when 11 is clear to the individual that he hos to function as o productive -entity
in the community of mankind will he come closer to o true understanding of the signi
cance of technical progress. We should not be blinded by the intricacies of the omozin
technical process of production, but should engage our main interest on the soun
planning of our lives.
Today we ore faced with nothing less than the reconquest of the biological bases o
human life. When we recover these, we con then reach o maximum utilization of tech
nicol progress in the fields of physical culture, nutrition, housing, ond industry - o thor
ough rearrangement of our present scheme of life Even today it is believed that I
importance needs to be attached to biological requirements than formerly, thanks t
our technically exact and calculable woys of dealing with them It is thought tho
securing sleep by veronol, relieving pain by aspirin, ond so on, con keep pace wit
organic wear and tear. In this direction the "progress" of civilization has brought with ·
dangers. Apparent economies may easily deceive. for technical progress should nev
be the goof, but instead ~he means.
Biological needs. Jn this book the word "biological'' stands generally for the laws o
fife wh"ch guarantee on organic development. If the meaning of "biological'" wer
16
conscious, it would protect many people from damaging influences. Children .isuolly
act in occordonce with biological lows. They refuse food when ill, they foll asleep when
tired, ond they don't show courtesy when uninterested. If today's civilization would
allow one more time in order to follow biological rhythms, lives would be less hysterical
and less empty.
The basic biological needs ore very simple. They may change or be deformed by
social and technical processes Great core must be token that their real signrficonce
should not be distorted. This often happens through o misunderstood luxury which
thwarts the satisfaction of biological needs. The oncoming generation hos to create a
culture which does not weaken, but which strengthens genuine biological functions.
Efforts toward reform . The creative human being knows (and suffers from ii) that the
inherent values of life ore being destroyed under the pressure of moneymaking, com-
petition, ond !rode. He suffers from the materialistic evaluation of his vitality, from the
flattening out of his instincts, from the impairing of his biological balance.
And yet, though the present sodol strucluro is o thoroughly unsuitable medium for
tho balanced outlet of human capacities, in tho private life of individuals some glimpses
of o functional understanding hove already oppoorod.
The advances in art, literature, the theater ond the moving-picture in our time, and
various educational movements give important indications of this foci. So does the
interest in physical culture, in recreation ond leisure, and in treatment by "natural'"
rather than chemical methods.
Such efforts, token as o whole, portend a new world. But no small unit of this growth
should be studied as on isolated foci The relations of various subjects (science, ort,
economics, te<:hnical knowledge, educational methods) and their integration must be
constonlly clarified wirhin the social whole.
Not the product, but man, is the end in view. Proceeding from such a basic re-
adjustment we may worlc out oo 'ndividuol pion of life, with self-analysis os its back-
ground. Nol the occupation, not the goods to be monufoctured, ought lo be put in the
foreground, but rather recognition of man's organic function. With this functional
preporotion, he con then pass on to action, to o life evolved from within. We then
lay down the bosis for on organic system of production whose focal point is man,
no! profit.
Everyone is talented. If he is deeply interested in his work, every healthy mon hos
a deep capacity for developing the creative energies in his nature.
Everyone is equipped by nature to receive ond to assimilate sensory experiences.
Everyone is sensitive to tones ond colors, everyone has o sure "touch" ond space
reactions, ond so on. This means that everyone by nature is able to participate in all
the pleasures of sensory experience, that ony healthy mon con become o musician,
pointer, sculptor, or architect, just os when he speaks, he is "o speaker." That is, he
con give form to his reactions in ony material (which is nol, however, synonymous with
"art," which is the highest level of expression of a period). The truth of this statement
is evidenced by actual lif~ in a perilous situation or in moments of inspiration the
conventions and inhibitions of doily routine ore broken, and the individual often reaches
on unexpected plane of achievement.
The work of children and of primitive peoples offers other evidence. Their spon-
taneous expressions spring tram on inner sense of what is right, os yet unshaken by
17
outside pressure. These ore examples of life governed by inner necessities. If we con
sider thot anyone con achieve expression in any field, even if it is not his best outlet
or essential to society, we moy infer with still greater certainty that it must be possibl
for everyone to comprehend works already erected in ony field.*
Such receptivity develops by stages, according to disposition, education, mental on
emotional understanding. If the brood line of organically functioning life is once estob
lished, the direction of oll human production is clearly indicated. Then no work - os i
often the case today with industrial production and its endless subdivisions - could b
felt as the despairing gesture of o man being submerged. All would emerge os art
expression of organic forces.
Conclusions. In conclusion we may soy that the injuries caused by o technical civilize
lion con be combotted on two fronts:
1. By o purposeful observation and o rational safeguarding of organic, biologicoll
conditioned functions- through art, science, technology, education, politics.
2. By relating the single results to all human activities.
Jn practice these two opprooches interlock, though logically step l must prepor
for step 2.
The responsibility for carrying out the plan lies with each individual. Ther
is no more urgent problem than that of realizing our desire to use fully man's co
structive abilities. For the lost 180 years or so, we hove been thinking about the problem
talking about it, and attempting lo ad on it Even today our practice is ot best o slot
men! of belief, and not o realization. Portiol solutions cannot be recommended; we o
now too involved in the problems of industrial society. Partial rebellion is only eviden
of monstrous pressure, a symptom. Only the person who understands himself, and c
operates with others in o for-reaching program of common action, con make his effo
count. Material motives moy well provide the occosion for on uprising or revoluti
but they con never be the deciding cause if constructive changes ore to be hoped f
The revolutionist should always remain conscious that the doss struggle is, in I
lost analysis, not about capitol, nor the means of production, but actually about I
right of the individuol to hove a satisfying occupation, o life-work that meets inn
needs, o balanced way of life, ond o real releose of humon energies.
Utopia? Utopio? No, but o task for pioneers. We need Utopians of genius, o ne
Jules Verne, not lo sketch the brood outlines of on eosily imaginable technical Utopi
but to prophesy the existence of the man of the future, who, in the realm of t
instinctive ond simple, as well as in the complicated relations of life, witl work in h
mony with the basic lows of his being. Leonardo do Vinci, with his gigantic plans o
ochievements, is the great example of the integration of art, science and technolo
It seems that our time will be able to create similar bosic conditions, o similar aim
phere, ond to produce a similar personality. Our time is one of transition, one
striving toward o synthesis of off knowledge. A person with imagination con functi
now as on integrator. Of course he hos to push aside the desire for the comple
which only o mature epoch con offer. He must be o pioneer in the vast ond unbrok
territories of our period, where every action could leod to creative solutions. If o
• Further evidence will be fornishtd by reference ro lhe bas c wT •1ngs o! Heinrich Jacoby, who has m
th s problem his lif•·worlt. He ca~centrated porhcularly on t~e problom of mullcal and non.mus
penoiu. His wnl ngs are a"10fl9 rhe valuable iaurces upon wh1cli educoloanal work can draw.
18
doubts !hot on individual con ever achieve so much, it moy be that it will not be
individuals alone, but working communities who do. Scientists hove olreody built on
internotionol system of research. The next step must be the solidarity of all cultural
workers and their conscious collaboration - tho major obligation or those who hove
already arrived ot consciousness of on organic way of life. Pioneer work with this aim
in view: mon's functiono capacities must be safeguarded, but not only sofeguorded;
the outwo~d conditions for therr realization must be put ot his disposal. At this point
the educotronol problem merges into the political, ond is perceptible os such, so for os
the student goe~ into everyday life, and must moke on adjustment to the existing order.
The " Bauhaus". The Bouhous, on ort university, founded by Wolter Gropius in 1919
in Germany, attempted to meel the needs of group work. Althouqh for reasons of
convenrence o division into semesters was retoined, the old concept and content of
"school" wos discorded, ond o community of workers established. The powers latent
in each individual were welded into o free collective body. The pattern of 0 community
of students wos worked out by students who learned "not for school, but for ife. •
Such o community implies practice in actual living. Its indiv1duols learn to master not
only themselves, but also the living ond working conditions of the environment Their
work, although starting oul with tho orts, must be o synthes"s This is what is meont
when Gropius speaks obout the "fotal legacy from a generation which arbitrarily
elevated some branches of ort above the rest os 'Pine art' and in so doing robbed oil
orts of their bosic identity and common life. But art is not one of those things that
moy be imported ..."
The educolionol program of lhc Bouhous, or more exactly, its working program,
rests upon this.
The first yeor in the Bauhaus is of decisive importance, especially for those young
people who, os a consequence of customary education, hove broughl with them o sterile
hoard of textbook information.
The first yeor their training is directed toward sensory experiences, toward the enrich-
m~nt of emotional values, and toward the development of thought. The emphasis is
lord, not so much on the differences between the individuals, os on the integration of
th~ir common biological features, and on ob1ective scientific and technological facts.
This allows o free, unprejudiced opprooch to every tosk. After this Pirst year begins the
peri.od of.speci~lized training, based on free vocational selection within the workshops.
During lh1s period the goal remains: man os a whole. Mon - when foced with oil the
material and spiritual problems of life - con, if he works from his biological center,
~oke his position with instinctive sureness. Then he is in no danger of intimidation by
industry, the haste of on often misunderstood "machine culture," or by past philosophies
oboul his creotive woys.
Objectives and methods of Bauhaus education. The XXth century overwhelmed
man with its inventions, new materials, new ways of construction, and new science. The
boundaries of given callings.were burst. New problems required more exact knowledge,
greater control of for-reaching relations ond more Aexibility thon the rigid schemes of
tradition permitted.
The multiplication of mechanical oppliances, ond new methods of research, required
a new inte 'lectuol orientation o fusion of clarity, conciseness, and precision.
It is historically interesting that everywhere in the world outstanding new industrial
19
products emerged, but mainly unintentionally, that is, in fields where not tradition, but
function determined form; in engineering construction, for instance, in acoustic, optical,
chemical and medical instruments, and in machinery, rollwoy and electrical equipment.
But basically it was not industry, nor technical experts, but the artist pioneers who dared
to proclaim the conception of "functional rightness." "Form follows function," Sullivan
and Adler said. This created on atmosphere, stimulating a new understanding of form
on the basis of changed technical, economic, and social conditions.
In Germany various groups concerned themselves with the problem of the creative;
such as the Darmstadt artists' colony ot Motildenhohe; the "'youth style"; the industrial
art school movement (Peter Behrens, Josef Olbrich, Von de Velde); and, above all, the
Werkbund.
Buildings were constructed to house these movements, exhibitions arranged, periodi-
cals and yearbooks published. All hod in view the establishing of on organic tie between
creative forces and industry. In America, Richardson, Sullivan, and Wright struggled
toward a solution. They recognized the creolive spirit in the use of the machine brought
about by bold and genuine inventors. In spite of that, industry kept on pouring out
products, ignorant of its own creative potentialities, and for the most port following
troditiondl prototypes developed by the handicrafts.
Out of the welter of rejection and approval, of demand and intuition, o principle
slowly crystallized:
Nat the single piece of work, nor the highest individual attainment must
be emphasized, but instead the creation of the commonly usable type,
development toward " standards."
To attain this goal, scattered individual efforts proved insufficient. There hod lo be a
general concept; instead of solutions in detail, there had to be a serious quest for the
essential, for the bosic ond common procedure of all creative work. In other words,
oll design had to be approached with the some questions concerning its function,
material, production processes, social significance, elc The recognition of this led to o
significant mental attitude. Gropius declared that the designer hos lo think and oct in
the terms of his time. He wished to abolish the supremacy of intellectual work over
handwork. He pointed out the great educational value of craftsmanship. "The machine
cannot be used os o short cut lo escape the necessity for organic experience" (lewis
Mumford).
In the Bauhaus, on the technically simple level of handwork, students could watch o
product grow from beginning to end. Their attention was directed to. on org~n ic entity,
and they were responsible for its entire production, os well as for its function. l.n the
present foclory process, the worker is directed only to ports of the whole, the ulhmote
relationships being known to him merely by description and illustrolion, not throug
experience.
Thus lhe manual training in the Bauhaus was not on aim in itself, but o means of
education, and in port o necessory tool for the industrial model This was the reason
why the handicrafts were supplemented in the Bauhaus with the basic machines of
various industries, enabling moss production.
The Bouhous become the focal point of new creative forces accepting the challenge
of technical progress with its recognition of socio I responsibility. It become the experi·
mental shop, the laboratory of the new movement.
Gropius reintegrated artists into the doily work of the notion. The results were
surprising. By uniting artistic, scientific and workshop training - with tools and basic
machines - by keeping in constant touch with advanced art ond techniques, with the
invention of new materials, and new methods of construction, the teachers and students
of the Bcuhous were able to turn out designs which hod decisive influence on industrial
moss production, and in the reshaping of doily life. The invention of tubular furniture,
modem lighting fixtures, practical household appliances, new types of hardware,
electrical contrivances, textiles, new typography, modern photography, and so on,
were the functional results of this work.
Institute of Design, Chicago. The old Bauhaus in Germany was eliminated by the
Nazis. Most of ifs members were scattered over the globe, to hold, nevertheless, impor-
tant positions in education and production. Its spiril become the guide of progressive art
education throughout the world, including lhe Institute of Design, Chica go, which trains
students as designers of hand- and machine-made products in wood, metal, plastics,
glass, textiles, stage designs ond display, and for commercial art, exposition orchitec-
lure, typography, photography, modelling, and pointing. There the education of the
designer hos become correlated with architedure.
The Preliminary (foundation) Course. The first two 1erms at the Institute ore
devoted lo o preliminary (foundation) course, obligatory to oll students. It presents !he
fundamentals of shop work, inlellectuol lntegrotion, the physical ond biologica l sciences,
modelling, drawing, lettering, photography, and music or literature. Its objective is
spontaneity and inventiveness, to give the student a universal outlook, to make him
conscious of his creative power. The method is to keep, in the work of the grown-up,
the sincerity of emotion, the truth of observation, the fantasy, and the creativeness of
the child. In the intellecf\Jol, as well os the emotional development of lhe youth, we
hove to learn to discriminate among the innumerable ways of expression which very
often ore distorted by on imitation of experience and by notions belonging lo another
generation.
The basic workshop of the foundation course is o great 01d to genuine development.
Here the student experiments with tools and machines, with different kinds of material,
such as wood, metal, rubber, gloss, textile, paper, plastics, etc., on o technical level
which develops unhampered by conventions. No copying of any kind is employed in
this workshop, nor is the student asked to deliver premature prac:tkol results. By working
with the different materials he discovers step by step their genuine possibilities and
acquires thorough knowledge of their structure, texture, and surface treatment. Also
he becomes conscious of volume and space, fundamentals in three-dimensional design.
Since, in the first year, every topic receives equal attention, he hos ample opportunity
to discover his preferences and incltnotions before deciding on vocational specialization.
In addition to the basic shop work, onolyticol, life, and geometrical drawing, lettering,
modelling and photography, provide further media of expression A doss for sound
experiments and building of musical instruments stimulates the auditory sense, and
gives the most direct experience of the organic connections of handicraft ond art.
Intellectual integration furnishes the student with information about those intellectual
topics which hove a bearing on the understanding of his surroundings, and lhe world
of intellectual activity. For his future loslc he receives further scientific education in
21
moJhemotics, physics, chemistry, bjology and physiology. These subjects ore taught
by scholars with special concern for co-ordination. Guest lecturers on the history of ort,
philosophy, psychology, etc., widen knowledge of contemporary topics and movements.
After every term a trial exhibition of the students' work is held, and ofter on eight or
twelve terms' course a final thesis is asked for.
The bosic idea of this education is that every man is talented, !hot once the elemen-
tary course hos brought his emotional and intelleciuol power into activity, he will be able
to do creative work. This does not mean necessarily thot it will be "art." Art is the
expression on the highest level of o cultural epoch, o level which cannot be forced by
any means. But comprehensive knowledge of materials, tools, and function makes
possible for all work lo be of such o high qualify that a genuine, and not an occidental
result will be obtained.
The Institute does not aim at the education of geniuses, or even of "free artists" in
the old sense. There are too many "free artists" with minor talents and minor problems
who hove no possibility of making o living. The Institute does not wont to add lo their
number. As members of society the students must learn to face practical os well as
spiritual problems. If, then, by toking in all the practical and spiritual material offered
to them during their training, some of them develop into "free" artists, this will be
their own personal achievement, of which the Institute will be very proud. But as long
as they ore students, they must see themselves os designers and craftsmen who will
make o living by furnishing the community with new ideas and products. This is the
realistic basis of the workshop training.
Simultaneous design and architecture training. The specialized workshops.
The Institute of Design offers five specialized workshops for those who successfully pass
the firsl year's examination. These workshops specialize in:
1. Objeci design; product development
2. Textiles (weaving, dyeing, fashion)
3. Color (murals, decorating, wollpoper)
4. light (photography, motion picture, light display, advertising art)
5. Modelling (gloss, cloy, stone, plastics, etc.)
All these workshops ore grouped around the main goal: architecture. While in o
special workshop the student simultaneously receives on orchilecturol education ending
with o Bachelor of Desi1:1n degree; four oddilionol terms will supply him with the special
instruction needed for the Master of Architecture degree. These courses include domestic
architecture, town ond regional planning, landscape architecture, analysis of com-
munity service for schools, kindergartens, hospitals, recreation centers, etc. An architect
with this education will be able to creole buildings wilh a unity of interior and exterior.
This means that domestic appliances, furniture, textiles, light, and color schemes will
"match" one another and the whole. The new architect will know by his previous work-
shop training that only the closest collaboration of art, science, ond technology guaran-
tees on organic building, purposeful in both the physical and socio-biological sense.
22
11. The material (surface treatment, painting)
1. Rudolf Morwitz (Bouhous, 19281.
Revolving roaile drum with controS11n9
1odile values; moteriols arranged
in rows.
Sensory training. Systematic work toward "moss production" starts, in the Institute,
with o non-art approach. By experience with material, impressions are amassed, some
often at flrst appearing unimportant. There is o further 01m: knowledge of materials, of
the possibilities in plastic handling, in tectonic application, in work with tools and
machines - such os is never attained through book knowledge and traditional verbal
instruction.
Basic sensory eic:periences - gained by these exercises - undergo development and
intellectual transformation, and later ore brought into relation to other experiences.
It is not possible to skip any stage in experience, though it may sometimes appear
desirable. From the first inarticulate experience, the whole of life is one continual
growth. Therefore it is indispensable, in human development, to poss through oil the
stages of elementary experience in every field of sensory activity. Little by little man
attains his own way of expression, and finds his forms.
Since the majority of people build up their world at second·hand, removed from
their own experience, the Institute musl often foll bock upon the mosl primitive sources
in order to guarantee on individual approach.
Tactile exercises. The physiologisl divides the different impulses which reach conscious-
ness as sensations into the exteroceptive (those set up by events in the outer world),
proprioceptive (those coming from muscles and odjocent deep structures and from the
labyrinth), and enteroceptive (those arising from lhe internal organs and viscera). But
our doily language hos retained the traditional "five senses," just as we keep the
"twelve signs of the zodiac" and the "four humors." We speak also of o "sixth sense,"
which is possessed by people living close to nature, o special sense of orientation or
of time. The sense of •·touch," more than any other, may be divided into o number of
separately sensed qualities, such as pressure, pricking, rubbing, pain, temperature,
and vibration.
The student, in his initial exercises, studies materials principally by means of his sense
of touch. He gathers o great variety of moteriols together, so that he may register as
many different sensations as possible with them. He puts them together into tactile
tables, which contain some related, and some contrasting touch sensations. After o
shorter or longer period of experimentation, he is able lo assemble these elements
in such o way thot they will correspond to o previously planned expression.
23
 Those exercises have nothing to do with scientific aims. We con understand them as
o subjective test, which moy be followed loter by more objective scientific testing in a
laboratory. Experience shows that the tactile exercises offer wide possibilities for useful
ends. They provide o sound foundation for many-sided sureness in the handling of
materials in technology, as well os ort work.
Some toct1 e charts l!IO\e vte, 1101 alone of the tact e se1not on o! !he !:ns;1trs,
bv1 also of the muKles and io nts. For example , the fi119ers ca.n be preued and
aaughl between nouowly mounted cur•es end !hey con nut up on bndges and
loll dow" irito volleys.
The form of the tod1le chom wos nol prastt1bed far ony problem, lhe only req11i're-
ment being that the values to IM tesrecl should be cleorly grasped through •he
$lightest possible sHmulus. This requirement led to lundomentol differences in the
1ndtvidual solution.
The work turned in lor these ex"'"°' showed not only o sotisfodion in the nght
r11ctile values, but also on uncon1C1ous development of technical skill in the neol
finish of the devices. There wot o marked improvement in the later assignments,
more difficult lechnicolly, beor1ng w1tneu lo o discipline not imposed bul sl!lf-
ottoined.
Among the tgclllo chort1 turned Jn, thero wos none lhot did nol display an original
ideo. This wos not the rtsull or long prollminory lnstrucllon. The work was oll done
oller the lirit fow houn of discu"oon.
Sinc:e toctilo values ore reg11tered purely subjectively, it oppeored dasirCJble tCJ
record individuol reactions in "touch diogroms." These could be referted lo ogoin
later on, thus chec~ong any chongu thot might have occurred In the percept;oru.
Tactile values, arranged purposely, con produce a new type of expression, just os
colors or tones no longer represent single color or tone effects when placed in mutual
relation. They are transposed into a meaningful structure, into on organism, which
radiates force, and which has the power of releasing a certain mood, or even o new
feeling of life.
How negleciitd our toc11l1 itducotoon b was ogoln demonstrated to me rece<itly
in o smk1ng way 1n a con•enotion with the d•rector of a training school of nurses,
who spoke of the dlfflcultiu she hod encountered In teochin; mouog~ What I
told her of the todilt eurclses govt her the ldeo ol introducing something similar
into her own work, with the hope of helping her pupils lo acquire greater refine-
ment of touch sensotion.
F. T. Marinelli, the leader of the futurists, in 1921 published a manifesto on "toctilism."
He was o passionate advocate of a new kind of art, to be based on tactile sensations
alone, and proposed tactile ribbons, carpets, beds, rooms, stage-settings, etc.
In the Institute, the concern with tactile values sorvcd to arouse and enrich the desire
for tactile sensation and emotional expression, and did not hove lhe aim of teaching
a new kind of "art." This does not exclude, however, the possibility of works of ort
resulting from the deepening of experience ond from the inspiration gained (especially
rn the case of the blind}.
In the e•emns of the d.f!ertnl sensory lro n ng there was o 1:1<1r~ed d F.e·er.a
in lh" behov or of the d F.cuent races. Thu d llerence wos also tnderc• n lhe toUt:b
exercises with bl' ndfo d.d eyH.
In the Institute we asked blind people to lest some of the tactile exercises. Their
response was most enlightening. It olso suggested the possibility of tactile exercises in
the education and rehabilitation of the blind
Blliid peep e en1ored Iha luting ol !octile charts This wos perhops the tin!
I me thot lhey •.tper enced w th the r fingers someth•tliJ J.h o • p ctore.'" One s•o!ed
"' opprecoot on oi the <harts "They ore mada for com'ort.'"
Experience with the material. Tactile charts represent on intensive psychological
study of the moleriol, and they increase one's assurance in measuring sensations. More-
over, there ore many speciflc branches for physical examination, such as crystollogrophy,
metallography, colorometry, etc.
Proceeding from the results of such research, tho scientist is able to foresee alterations
and improvements in the working materials, ond lo give these changes a desired
direction, to meet given requirements of strength, rust-resistance, temperature, and
other characteristics, assuring the reolizotion of many projects hitherto considered
impossible. We rejoice today in a whole series of synthetic materials: plastics, for
example, wilh their flawless, smooth, but still variable surfaces, with their extraordinary
properties.
2, o, b. Chorles N1tdrin9ho11s
But we must still employ caution in their use. The results of experiments ond guaran-
(~ Bouhous, 1938). "Smell·o-Me!er,'' tees, not to speak of advertisements, must be occepled with reservations, since industria l
for mo:ung six different odors 11• production is often not directed along the lines of actual needs, but for quick profits.
•olJe, ore used olld on electric Ion blo..,
I " smell into the opening for lhe nose
As oil types of senJOfy nruot•ons ploy on Important port in 0111 expenecnces the
"dee of on odor organ orou, Its greatest od•onto91 wos that it bl~ded d'fferent
odors in ttoctly g•~en ~.
Orug stores might u~e such o d.-.rce for offering sample perfume smell~; so might
•.a ond coffee housti, winer u, etc.
Terminology. The terminology for the different aspects of materials hos not as yet
been worked out with accuracy. In general, four terms ore used:
structure
texture
surface aspect (or surface treolment)
mossing (mass arrangement)
These designations ore rather arbitrary, and ore often interchanged in common use.
Structure. The unalterable monner tn which the material is built up constitutes its
structure. Each material hos its own slruclure· in metals, it is crystalline; in paper, fibrous.
3. Structure of wrapping paper
!m"craphotogroph),
The m•croKOpe ond microphologrophy d sclose o new world. Tney revecl, in In~
~~e of f:oste olld superficiol1ry, the marvel of the smollast ur. "ts of cons:rud·o,.,, otr
•·bst•lufe for the longer per od of t me that pr'm I,•., lllO!I covld <ievo•e ·o
ebset•olion.
25
 is st.own by lhis ptclure w11h lhe crowd of umbrellos Everyone lo whom I ho•• thus
,_ hs .. spot• com pres.ors,.. on ex!eMion of for st.own this p dure hos hod to 1m1lcl
Airplane v •W1 o•e rnoaopnoto91op ' _... I
obse,,.ohon. They reveal the lorge scale relot o11u11ps, os m1crophoto9ro.,.~ reveo

the,,,smhooll,::~oph of structure often reveals the infin1t1t richness of the moteria.l. The
• Exercises in surface treatment. 1. Surface treatment of paper with a free choice of
p -" ' be 1 h to o ne"' education '"
:;,:;,0~~~~~.d~~n:n::::~;::~;•;;ho11: o~:;:~q~:c~hel~ou:~,~0;..:~-:i tools (such as needles, tweezers, sieves) used in ony desired way (pricking, pressing,
rubbing, filing, boring, etc.).
approach lo octuol nperience w•th Ill• mot1110 . 91ve
iodoy o s:'mulus to "'°''
le sur1ly obaervotion of the object ltHll. 2 Surface treatment of paper with a single tool (needle, knife, tweezers, or by folding,
etc.).
surface we may coll texture. The epidermis is on
Texture. The resulting Outward 3. Coloring different kinds of fabrics
organic le>Cture. 4. Surface treatment on paper and canvas with different tools (point brush, air brush,
etc.).
5. Surface treatment with color and brush on various materials.
6. Various surface treatments with glue (with graphite, sand, wood particles, sawdust,
shavings, etc., scattered on the glue).
7. Surface treatment of various materials (wool, metal, wood, etc.).
8. Practical applications (making toys and the like).
9. Visual representations of structure, texture, and surface aspects, all the way from
complete visual illusion to abstraction, by means of drawing, pointing, and photog-
7. ~rdo Mone 18ouhous, 1927), raphy. The tactile values acquired by experience and transformed into exact visual
Surface treatments of paper (o single representations con be thus evaluated, and applied in a wholly new manner.
moteriol, different tools).

Mony people woll perhopi not be convinced of the iu>l•focotoon of such exercises
A. Textur• of the s~in or o mon,
allegedly 130 yeoD old, in Minnesota. until Jome prod•col opplicotion is pointed out. For example: boolc binders ond
· 'ew of the rnonufocturen of wrappers (for chOC'Olote cook.es, etc.) could gel ollrod1ve
The pho•ogroph of the old mon it esHnt1olly a time·compress1ng v1 • po!terns" 1n this woy
oherot,ons in the ep derm•U on oirplone view of time. But we ore, 1n the lint perod of Iha leoching, rnuch le.s concerned with such

o~pect treot~ent) me~:~ 1~::~~::~i~f ~e::~~~~~r

applicotions tho11 w.th the foncfomentol r1tot1onship of mon to material.
Surface a sped. Surface lor surface
result (the effect) of o worlong process as shown y any g h bout
Such a change in the material surface through e><ternol f~~torsm:;~l::~r:~~:if~rmly Creative application. In the effort lo recognize the conditions of structure, texture,
'n different ways· in a metal bowl, for example, as pattern om I , h and surface treatment, we often run into difficulties: coses of overlapping, or of alterna-
t ' be due to elementa causes, sue
smooth (pressed, polished}. Surface o~pects may ch h' e treatment. The en tive uses. Sul, in a general way, structure and texture determine the choice of working
the influence of nature, or lo mechon1Col causes, su as mac tn k tools; surface aspect, on the other hand, is conditioned by tools, by the possibilities of
. d d' t th material and the force at wor .
result may be infinitely vone , accor mg o e . t h able external force.
The deflnitions of structure, texture, and surface treatment. or~ in e~; otng~ re· i Mere observations on the make-up of materials ore of little value. Effective expression
ases Take aper for example: under o microscope ti s ows ' s s ru u '
::;;o~ opp~oronc:rem;ins as te>Clure; and its finish means its.surface l~~atmenl. Wh
of such observations is gained only by meaningful application - a very different thing
from accidental exploitation of one chorocterisltc of the material Purposive application
s. Surfoce osped. Corut~'• "h19h" c onh we apply these definitions, we hove always lo decide the dom1nonl quo tty. • alone can lead to the best treatment, that is, to inventions for household appliances,
0 pho,.ogroph record. M1cropho109rop ·
. t) The fourth aspect of the appearance of material packages, book bindings, etc. The problem is, of course, to And proper ways of appli-
Massing (mass arrangemen . I d t ft 8. Hilde Horn (8ouhou1, 1924). A visual
regular, rhythmical, or irregular mossing. This is the most easily .o le~era::p;~e :ho translation of volue• •n Iha material cation, so that the importance of the elements will not be dominant, but instead happily
four In the moss arrangement of surface units there ore no organic r~ o • h' d . (texture ond surface ospectJ On91nol absorbed by the best solution of the functional end in view.
· dd't' "Mossing" is often interc onge Wt montoge ond graphic representoflon.
ft n being not synthesis but mere a ' ion.
~suerface treatment," and there is no ob1ection lo ~reot.ing "~oss1n~" (m;ss or:~!~~~n rne • 9 ..1ficonce of these ••• c ;.es lies 1n the dose ol»er"ot1on of the moteriols.
Accuracy in repruentotion wos to be brought to the point of octuol identity with
"surface treatment for the purposes of s1mphficolton. It is no our e the 011ginol when both were photographed. This problem is not to be confused with
as o ' rf cl etc these concepts o
'th our descriptions of structure, texture, su ace ospe ' ., d' . . 011y orhst1c encl. Tile ..erc111s we•e solely to ochi.,.e o perfecl coordinolion of obser·
wt . . . t make on attempt at 1scnm1 vol 011 and reptesentolion.
ode uotely defined But in education it is necessary o . Pho!ogrophy •s included 1n the prelim1nory coune Be ng itself o perfect instrumenl
lion:nd definition, especially in a realm where none hos been established. of exoCI representation lr ~rves os meons of comporiso11 for the quol1ty of monuol
6. Moult19 (surfoce otpect). aohm1011s'11p. The ll1te1ote of tha future will be, we bet eve, the ~rson Who CO~"<>I
....-'--n.'iusicol !sei.sory«eodive, oct;on, photograph.
Th °'1eM>ft'lllOtl moy e•elCIH 0 ... , ....- .... , d
wb•c~I sa~:911ter.O by mony people '" o 9r101er, by mony olhell ltl o euer, eg1ee
27
26

In the study of tactile values, as aRctt ng slrlKlute, texture, and surface Ueot-
ent some of the shKlents d reeled thc11 eRotll toward o dt~ni'e goal, while others
~ow~d merely 0 recepto•e reoci.on. Some ol the students mode toys from their
sp1e(e1 of wood , while otheri left them o<tly cs material worked upon, to be looked
at o 'Id touched. wh ch
A delightful ruuh of thue exerc l f l w th molenols was l'>e •"'~u• a "'I •"t.
some of lhe 1tudenls produced from a piece of volueleu fitet·wood voroous ob1e<:ls by
1ntens'•e manual treatment. Often they robbed end polis ed a P•tC~ of wood for
clays at 0 fme, go'rung ln the erid o los! ng relohomh p to the mote<1ol.
9. Pope• culling {The Ne.., Bouhous,
193n.
ThetSe exercises show 09oi11 the unlimited creative ob1lily of the students. In a
given fromirworlc evtfYbody's JOlut•on is dil!ere11t.
10. Angelo Tu1o (lnUilute of Oeiign,
19421. &pe11mentof woodcut fer wood
springs.
Woodcuttings show the potentlol11 es of the woodworking mochi~~ until now
unknown. Solid p ee11s of wood c<m be d\cng~ onto rubber-Ike ela1fic1ty, etc. The
some ptiftcople con bo appl ed to every o•her maier al and eYcf)' other 1001.
Educotoon without trod•l•onol approach con perform mirodes in the use of tools
and machines. The students generally become so 1nreres•ed in their ~m~s thot they
do no! find cey d fficulty in 1he UH! of l!IOth nes. It 11 o 11ctus s m !or lo that of
di ldren n ~indcrgarten woe~ r:g wilh po •I or.d ooyon.
28
Biotechnics as a method of creative activity. The natural scientist, Raoul France,
devoted himselr to an intensive study of this problem. He ..alls his method of reseorch
and its results "biotechnics."
The essential part of his teaching is expressed in the following quotations:• "Every
process in nature hos its necessary form. These processes always result in fonctional
forms. They follow the law of the shortest distance between points: cooling occurs only
on surfaces exposed to cooling, pressure only on points of pressure, tensron on I nes of
tension; mofon creates for itself forms of movement - for each energy there is a
form of energy."
''All technical forms con be deduced from forms in nature. The lows or least resistance
and of economy of effort make it inevitable that similar activities shall always leod to
similar forms. So man con master the powers of nature in another and quite different
woy from what he has done hitherto."
"If he but applied oil !he principles that the organism hos adopted in its striving
toward useful ends, he will flnd there enough employment ror all his capitol, strength,
and talent for centuries to come. Every bush, every tree, con instruc.I him, advise him,
and show him inventions, apparatuses, technical appliances without number."
As to lhe possibilities of using nature as a constructional model for appliances, we
hove statements by Galileo. Even in the earliest pe11ods of cultural history, we find
objects recognizable as the result of understanding prototypes in nature in regard to
their functional value (not to be confused with o merely ornamental exploitation of
noturol forms).
But still it hos more often happened that man, probing into the problem of rightly
sensing and recognizing !he tmique properties of material (medium) _._ tool (machine)
+ function has, without studying prototypes in nature, hit upon correct solutions, later
found to be in agreement with natural forms with similar functions. Such coincidences
ore valuable as laboratory data, but they should not lead to the ossumption that a well
functioning construction always hos analogies.
The usefulness of biotechnics lies in a more conscious approach to inventions which
ore generally believed to be the results only of intuition. Fortunately, Edison s work
proved that inventtons con be greotly aided by the analytical method of science.
The basic law. In oll fields of creation workers ore striving today to find purely func-
tional solutions of a technological-biological kind: that is, to build up each piece of
work solely from the elements which are required for its function. Sut "function" means
here not o pure mechanical service. It includes also the psychological, social, and
economical conditions of a given period. It might be better to use the term "organic
(functional) design." Such design must even serve functions which could not be foreseen
during the process of designing.
The responsibility. Technology hos, in this respect, given on important lesson. Often
the lives of thousands or hundreds or thousands or people ore in the engineer's hands.
In the construction of o machine, on airplane, a bridge, he con never overlook this.
He assumes personal responsibility for his products.
Why is the responsibility for produds whose use involves less danger lo life held
more lightly? Why, for instance, in the building of rurniture or household equipment,
• Raoul H. Fronce. "o·e Pllonze o1s Erfinder" (KoSl!IOS, Fronc~hlcbe Verloglhoadlung, Stuttgart, 1920).
29
do we still let "personal preference" and applied art "standards" hold sway? Such
"standards" ore mainly a cloak for poverty of invention, as measured against organic,
functional solutions. Goods intended for common use ore neither socromcntol vessels
nor objects of contemplation. They must fulfil their functions first of all, and foll into o
significant relation with their surroundings Ye~ we often argue the question, with such
expressions as "the designer must be allowed to use the free ploy of his imagination,"
and the like. But creat•ve abilties con be turned into organically more correct channels
than the purely omamenta1 or decorative to which ''free ploy" refers.
The freedom of the creator. Naturally there ore countless coses in which exact
calculation of oil the functional elements cannot as yet be mode - in many coses,
perhaps never. In every creative work there is a sphere in which a certain amount of
freedom must prevail, where the definable function no longer determines, or at least
not wholly determines form. In such coses on instinctive sureness, penetrating grasp,
is required, and this is nothing more than a complicated interlacing of experience,
1mog1no1ton, and fantasy, processes gorng on rn the subconscious
There ore other cases. The decorating of a wall, for instance, will remain a molter of
subject ive taste or creative instinct, until scientific research enters the field and
determines the different needs, such as lighting, hygiene and psychophysical require-
ments. Then, most probably, prescribed color tones con be used in certain places and
certain rooms. For the present, our decisions in this field arc rather arbitrary. We hove
scarcely a theoretical outline of the use of color.
We must guard against the pressure of the subjective desire to change objective
forms which express function, "in order to make them more beautiful," by the addition
of decorative elements. Who• could be the reaction, for instance, lo a proposal to
ornament the surface of a phonograph record?
Ornament. The creative opp cation of the moteriol, and of the p·oduc ion process
clarifies the question of "functional" and ··ornamental" form. In comparison with the
recognition of organic relation, the discussions of yesterday - still carried on lo some
extent - as to "purposeful form" and "omamentation" appear unnecessary. How
naive is the fear of "cold intellectualism," of form expressing merely purpose, if we
but learn to observe the forms rn nature os meaningful according to purpose! Most
people ore not sure rn judging decoration. Understanding becomes easier when we
grasp the essence of on organic form, which is the crystallization of its function. Where
a complete fulfillment of the functional need has been found, there is nothing left to
ornament. Ornamentation almost always goes beyond the funclronol. In the past it was
often o cult symbol, understood by oil the people of tho some civilization. Ornament
was thus "surface treatment'' with symbolic value; only later was jl a surface treatment
without its original cult meaning.
Sometimes ornament was also used to cover inexact execution. It was on afterthought,
superficially added to the principal work; work that could not adequately meet its
requirements was supposed to be given an increased value by decoration (e.g., wall-
paper patterns, printed on cheap paper). A fancied increase in value was usually
derived from imitation of an authentic arrangement, o mechanical repetition of a
genuine historic form.
But not every symbol or repetition is ornamental. We need many symbols ourselves,
traffic signs, the red cross, the eagle, flogs, etc.
30
Repetition - i.e., a series - belongs to presenl·doy technique. In it modern man
recogni~es, _though often with o mental reservation, "1he beauty of technology." His
reservolron is something like "beauty in spite of its technological origin."
Orname ntation was often subordinated to function. We find emphasis upon
funclto.n in early times. Even ornament was mode to serve o utilitorian function. The
embroidery on Czechoslovakian shirtwaists, for instance, originated - as Professor
Vydro hos pointed out - by sewing narrow strips togethe in order to secu e the re-
qui~ed width of the shirt. This can be seen in the colorful raincoats of the Alaska
Eskimos, too. They are mode from norrow salmon skins m alternating colors.
There exists also o kind of camouflage ornamentation, as in the decoration of wood.
In Bavaria heavy planks on balconies - which, since wood continually contracts and
exponds, were in danger of crocking - were provided with length111 ise or~oments.
A present-day anology is laminated wood (plywood). Here the edges produce an
ornamental effect, not "ornament " This effect cannot be called surface treatment but
rnsteod, ··structure' or "texture," since 11 ts the result of gluing layers togeth~r t~
prevent warping.
".Divis.ion of surfaces." The conception of "surface division· also belongs to the
d1scuss1on of ornamentation. Its application, in architecture, for example, makes 0 wall
appear thicker, smeller, or narrower than it oduolly is.
In the different oesthetic precepts of art there ore many rules of correct propor•ion.
Thoroughly u~derstandoble for post periods, to which the discovery of these precepts
represented sincere and deep experience, they became mechanical guides to 0 con-
ventional "art production," repetn:ons of formulas of the post, now emptied of all
meaning. Formulae con never be the basis of creation. Real creation needs intuition on
the one hand, ond, on the other, conscious analysis, mature judgment, and 0 cons.dera-
tion of manifold aspects.
The criterion sh~uld never be "art,' or "not art," but whether the right form was given
lo the stated function. Whether !hrs ever will be called "art" is of secondory importance.
Composition, construction. Composition and construction ore aspects of the same
problem Composition is the product of the highest subjective evaluation of elements
and th~ir relatio.nsh1ps. This evaluation may even, in the course of the work, be changed
by the rntroductron of new elements, which result in olleration of the total composition.
A construction, on the other hand, strives toward a known objective, through pre-
determ.ine~ technical and intellectual relatrons al every point of its existence. Any
alterol1on 1n the course of execution invalidates the previously organized distribution
of forces. Construction therefore demands as compared to compostlton - 0 plus
quanlrty of knowledge. This does not mean that intuitive insprrotion is eliminated.
Tradition . It is unfortunate how often •radition, never re-examined, is honored as on
unerring guide to what is beautiful and what is right.
The ideal of yesterday hos become on aesthetic formula, o source of pseudo
"experience," for the new generation. The official seats of learning - universities and
colleges - must accept the responsibility for this error.
. The some f~ilure to think and work independently is unfortunately exhibited today
rn every domarn, as much in handrcrofts as in machine production. It is, to be sure, less
31
dangerous m the handicrafts. The number of objects produced is relatively limited;
but the machine, with its boundless output, is terrifyingly fecund. II spews out - in
"beautifying" everyday objects - stereotyped decorations on thousands of commercial
art ides.
Engineering and technical skill hove freed themselves from formalism somewhat more.
Engineering products ore designed mainly on the basis of functional requirements. This
fact is remarked because the sfondard of "classical ' beauty was long firmly fixed in
the heads of machine builders as well Machines built during the lost century were
adorned with Doric columns, Corinthian capitols, and baroque festoons.
Art. Our existence seems excessively burdened with accretions from the post when
compared too new plan of life, in which all creation springs from inner necessities.
Even in its seeming isolation, the experience of art as the thermometer of necessities
is indispensable for society. The true function of art is to be the graph of our time, on
intuitive search for the missing equilibrium among our emotional, intellectual, and
social lives. Ari is the most intimate language of the senses, a direct linking of man
to man.
What Sigmund Freud hod to soy about these relations is interesting: "Only in one
field hos the omnipotence of thought been retained in our own civilization, namely,
in ort. In art alone, it still happens that man, consumed by his wishes, produces some-
thing similar to the gratificot1on of these wishes, and this ploying1 thanks to artistic
illusion, calls forth effects as if it were something real."
On the other side, Piet Mondrian, one of the great pointers of our century, pointed
out:* "This . . . brings us, in a future perhaps remote, towards the end of ort as a
thing separate from our surrounding environment, which is the actual plastic reality.
But this end is ot the same time o new beginning. Art will not only continue, but will
realize itself more and more. By the unification of architecture, sculpture and pointing
in their highest development, a new plastic reality will be created. Painting and sculp-
ture will not manifest themselves as separate objects, nor as 'mural art' which destroys
architecture itself, nor as 'applied art,' but, being purely constructive, will aid the
creation of a surrounding environment not merely utilitarian or rational, but olso pure
and complete in its beauty."
The art "isms." The problem of the creative worker is mainly one of finding elements
that ore adequate for the content. Reflecting all 1he movements and aspirations of his
time, the creator attempts to express himself with the means of his own day. This is the
common denominator of the many art "isms" which hove sprung up in the lost hundred
years: naturalism, realism, impressionism, pointillism, neo-impressionism, expressionism,
cubism, futurism, supremotism, neo-plosticism, purism, constructivism, dadaism, surreol-
ism, etc.
Nevertheless, for the majority of observers it is scarcely possible to distinguish among
the dozens of art "isms" - even in their clossifloble, rationalized and historical phases
- because this common denominator is not known to them. So it seems to many people
that each picture, piece of music, or poem, demands for its comprehension a deep·
lying philosophical sub-structure: o brain-cudgeling, ra ther than o direct surrender to
its expression.
• ••p1os1ic Arr ond Pure Plosrlc Art•• [The Oocurne111S of Modt!1n Art), Wittenborn end Company, N. Y., 1945.
32
. laden with false. expectations, people wont lo "understand" everything al once,
instead of first cleanng the channels of experience. It is, for example, 0 most informative
fact that the arts, as well as the sciences, strive to establish o better control of our
env!ron.ment through more related research and representation, through clearer co-
~rdi~ohon ~f these with daily life. Thus the observer must first learn to acknowledge
m his own life the ruling biological principle, and to strive, in spite of social restrictions
~o let it hov~ its way. He may thus be in o position to recognize the some principle i~
~Is most vaned aspects and manifestations. It will then be easy to toke the Sfep to art
itself; and ~rt forms and art "isms," which at first appeared complicated, will order
themselves rn on organic relation.
An ex ample. The native strength of on approach through experience - unfettered by
formulas - con be demonstrated in the work of any sound artist, by the following
example of expression rising from within.
With the background of experience with materials, suggested as preparation in the
first port of this book, such an example con become o stimulus to bring the reader closer,
as the example, to the work of cubism.
And if cubism con be made clearer, it will then become on easy task to follow 0 line
and understand all other art "isms," for they hove astonishingly much in common with
cubism.
Cubism relate d to space re p resentation . Picasso's work is suitable for introduction
at this point, because - especially at the beginning of the cubist period - the relation
to elemental experience of materials, to tactile values, and to surface treatment is
particularly graspable in his work. His intuitive comprehension of this field, on the visua l
side - though today already o matter of historical record -was full of the unexpected,
the fresh, and the lively. What seemed in him only yesterday bizarre and senseless,
now reveals itself os on ingenious paraphrase of our changing outlook on materials
a nd space-time.
There is no doubt that the development of occidental painting can be approached
from many points of view. If we choose one, e.g., the visual representation of space, i.e.,
the creation of spatial illusion on the picture-plane - then the cubists and post-cubists
belong lo the revolution which changed the terms of the older representation of space,
terms which were based on different linear rhythms, color, size differences, surface divi-
sions, linear and aerial perspectives, isometry, light ond dork, etc. The cubists introduced
o new structure, through the organization of parallel planes.
About cubism. The following discussion cannot deol exhaustively with all the cubists.
In their work, besides the problems mentioned here, there ore countless others, ha ving
their origin portly in their way of looking ot the world, portly in their material, and
portly in their intuitive understanding of the problems of their time. It is not necessary,
nor will it be possible lo set it all down in words.
Cubism was originally a nickname intended to discredit Braque, Picasso, and his
comrades. The picture which brought about this "witty" designation contains, in fact,
cubic figures. Complicated objects, richly varied in appearance, were reduced to geo-
metrical elements. But in its later development, cubism hod nothing whatever to do
with cubes. Its work is better characterized a s the resolution of the external world into
its elements, into dissected and newly organized planes, which in turn produced a
subtle but very definile articulation of the picture's surface.
33
Th• fi rst phase of cubis m (Picasso , Braque, De launay, Gleizes, Gris, Le ger,
Metzinger). It is highly probable that, among other social and economic origins,
cubism had a real beginning in the expression of Cezanne: "Tout dons la nature se
o
modele selon le sphere, le c0ne, et le cylindre; ii fout s'apprendre peindre ces figures
simples, on pourro ensuite faire tout ce qu'on vaudra" (everything in nature is modeled
on the sphere, the cone, and the cylinder; we must teach ourselves how lo point these
simple figures, and then we can do whatever we wish"). Picasso accepted this dictum,
together with his companions, Braque, Oelaunay, Gleizes, Juan Gris, Metzinger, Leger,
etc. They experienced the world "geometrically." But soon a noteworthy change was
introduced, which seemed to involve the denial of pleasure in these geometrical forms.
Pictures were painted in which objects, though related to geometry, were represented in
distorted shapes.
What was happening~ O rder, which had been extolled, was rejected for its opposite.
But only seemingly so. The beauty and sincerity of o neat, crystalline world was to
become even more evident from the reversal. This is one side of the story.
Looking back, it can be suggested that something like the following may have under·
layed this development. In our environment there a re stereometricolly exact objects:
bottles, goblets, bowls, musical instruments, etc. But since they ore all around us, the
objects of daily routine, nobody any longer observes and enjoys their beauty. So we
must make the beauty of the exact clear, by on artificial distortion, leading to a con-
scious rediscovery of their immaculate beauty in the mind of the observer. There starts
something new, too. The illusionistic representation of objects, with the help of the fixed
rena issance perspective, gives way to a representation which works with simultaneous
views of the object; i.e., the object is seen in frontal elevation, from above, from profile,
and from three-quarter prof.le. The "distorted" object on the canvas is the intuitive
amalgamation of these different points of view. Another method shows clearly such
a process of simultaneous viewing. The objects are Aattened, as they would be if they
had been pressed between two plates. In this woy the spedator can see more of them
than from a "normal" fixed viewpoint. The lighter and darker shading of surfaces can
be understood as o means for discrimination in pcrcepting each viewpoint, ond ot the
some time as spatial articulation - bock, forward, oblique - of the pictorial space
of the picture-plane. This lotter led the cubists to a more conscious analysis of their
new spatial expression, which become the basis of a new visual orientation.
But Picasso exercised not only a pedagogical function. He is also - and first of all -
the creator of organic working processes. The form of his picture is dependent equally
on the application of materials, and on his tools. Thus, for instance, "Lo Tobie" (191 0)
is o drawing with clearly legible stroke values of pencil on paper. It seems almost the
result of outomatic action. One might soy the pencil hod created everything from its
own impulse, by virtue of its own unique quality. (One could give similar descriptions
of every cubist picture, whether it was executed in wash, watercolor, oil, or in other
medium.)
This is what we may coll obiective surface treatment: the rediscovered values of
materials and of tools, which, in the later cubism - which was detached from represen·
tolionol aims - also work in themselves and for themselves; not as a naturalistic copy
of the exlernal world, or as on attempt lo give the illusion of actual materials, but as
material values, actually presented through "surface treatment.''
Surface treatment in painting. The problem of surface treatment in painting is of
long stan~ing. The renaissance artist exploited his material and tool values as best
h~ could, in the interest of tho complete illusion of naturalism. The essential thing he
';1shed lo bring lo life in his picture was not only that color and contour, plane and
line, and the r values of direction and position, ore copoble of releasing 0 network of
~ensotions, peculiar to these elements alone, but also that o story was to be narrated
in c~lor: on occuro~e copy of the external world, mode comprehensible through the
relations ~f three-dimensional objects. The impressionists were the first to rediscover,
as essential ~omponents in painting, color and light within their own potentialities.
No doubt this hod ~n known lo painters of other times; it was utilized :o 0 great
ext.en! by the Fl~rentmes, especially Botticelli. He used an almost pointillist technique,
pa~nting. over different colored layers with short strokes in the complementary colors.
Wit~ this technique he overcome the rough material effect of the pigment, a nd
ach_ieved o sublimated light sensation. However, in his case, it was on intuitive use of
opttcal lows ond psychophysical effects, not a goal, as it was with the impressionists.
The crux of the technical problem of the impressionists was to bring colors to their
e lementary intensity, to the point of translating color into light. They remembered that
t~e atmosphere a ffects colors, either by dulling them or making them brighter, so that
light must be represented by vibrating color schemes. They pointed therefore no homo-
g~neous surfaces; but each surface wos dissected to small ports, and resolved into
different values of tone, hue, and brilliancy. Soon ofter, experiments were mode
(van Gogh! ~ith relief-like application of the pigment, which permitted a breaking up of
the color, if light was falling upon it (through the high-lights and shadows of the brush
strokes). The result was an intensification and o heightened liveliness of color.
But since this could never be light itself, but only a translation, each individual effort
hod a very personal character. Surface treatments were o necessary "evil," which ha d
to be mastered, 1f light was lo be fixed on canvas. Brush and liquid color1 spatula and
thick pigment mosses were not allowed free play, so as lo produce their own quality.
They were merely the accessories in the securing of "atmospheric" effects. The real
discoveries in surface treatment thus come about almost by occident, in the search for
the best method of representing light.
_These discoveries passed in large measure as personal, almost patented processes,
without recognition of their objective visual value. Even the futurists clothed their new
co~tent - which wos impression of objects in motion, or the simultaneity of occurrences
- in the old (in port pointillist) technique (Severin1). Al the same time the cubists come
on the scene With on "objective" surface treatment They found out what it means to
accede lo the requirements of the material, instead of subduing it. They observed tho!
washes with a brush, or washes with a pen, and watercolor, tempera and oil in various
l~chniques must be handled differently, and that this "giving in" become 0 dynamic
stimulus toward a new content
The _linear perspective discovered in the renaissance could give a statement oboul
the obtect only from one fixed point. Every detail of the representation was valid only
from the unalterable position of the first spectator, the pointer The same notion decided
tho~ sc~lpture must have a '"best· side; i.e., be viewed from 0 fixed point. This gave 0
sub1echve, rather arb.trary definition of the "object." The cubist felt the need of 0 more
essential representation of the object's manifold aspects. Thus he began to peel off the
surfaces of the ob1ect, lo disintegrate it, in order to become fully acquainted with its
structural elements.
3S
 The guitar, the pipe, the bottle, the gloss, repose on the table (Fig. 11 ). Picasso
observes them singly, for the moment without regarding their relations to each other.
He is not restrained, by on artistic formula, from experiencing them diredly. He cuts
them apart, looks into their insides, and lays the dismembered ports parallel to the
plane of the canvas, one beside the other, giving o cross-section, on oblique section,
o view from the side, and a view from above. He pulls the leg off the table, and slides
it on top, so that everything - no port more important than any other - lies side by
side, showing its manner of being, without concealment, its "objective reality."
The wall of the room in which the table stands is covered with wallpaper. A piece
of that wallpaper is attached lo the picture; no more concrete manner of denotation
exists.
A newspaper is lying on the table. It would be o superfluous effort to attempt to
paint words exactly like the printed ones; o piece of the newspaper is glued lo th
11, Pobto Picouo, 1913. Still Iii• picture. Shadows cannot be glued on; but since he has not yet wholly freed himsel
(cotloge}. from academic naturalism, and still adheres moreover to the impressionistic principle
which allows no monochromatic representation of surfaces, the pieces of paper glu
on are smeared with charcoal, in order to represent shadow.
Picasso's analyses of the pictorial space were the outgrowth of his efforts lo attain
o precise rendering of his experience of objects. The dismembered ports ore plac
one behind the other, lo endless depths, many times again woven together, so th
they interpenelrale one another, but always in the manifold variety of on exciting
visual arrangement, creating o richly articulated space.
The next step: the "shadow" becomes on actual shadow, the result of sticking real
objects on to the surface. The object must be grasped in all its attributes. Thus the
relief in wood, 1913, is mode. The guitar and the other objects ore actual pieces o
wood nailed on the surface; they produce reol shadows - which enliven the surfaces.
With light and shadow, as the impressionists demanded; i.e., the "pictorial effect," the
peinlure quality, is gained without help from the breaking up of colors, and pointi
them with o brush on the picture-plane.
Here is the porting of the ways. A step further, and the picture, and with it the e
12. Poblo Picouo, 1913 Portroit to fathom the being of on object by the graphic method, would disappear. The n
(oil po•nling), treatment would hove to be: lo mount the object itself, in whole or in section, in •
original size, on o board - i.e., actually to let everything simply stay on the table.
Thus Picasso's concern for the pictorial possibilities of expression brings him bock t
the plane, to the flat surface.
Now with complete abandon he tries doing everything possible to the surface wi
pigments. Although he continues to point objects, still fifes, portraits, the "subject matte
becomes more and more o side-issue (Fig. 12).
His discoveries of surface treatment overreach one another. He uses the brush, t
palette knife; he combs or scratches the pigment; he mixes it with sand, cement,
graphite. He introduces new materials: corrugated cardboard, wire mesh, etc. Anythi
- in order to ottoin the shimmering color experience of the material. The subject
disregarded.
The stnictur•, lutur• , ond surface tr•olment volues llrsl ploysd o greot port in
th• work of the cub•sls (P1COlSO. Broque). They w•r• loter loken onr by the futurists,
ond 11111 later by oll the oth.r ";111." ' They b.alme, for instonc•, the stimulus for a
n•w typogrophy, thl'y off.c!sd photogrophy, ad••r1•s1ng, the 11101ion pictu••· lh
th.o••r. o"d ho•• hod mol\y ••percun•ons on our whole life today.
36
At this stage of cubism, the titles of the pictures ore often misleading, They incite
the observer to look for the meaning of the work in its point of departure in the external
world, o point which is usually submerged by the process of form ulation.
The picture-plane gives way here, in fact, to the lows of p1ctoriol arrangement crys-
tallized from the relationships of color, of chiaroscuro, of position, direction, of pro-
portions of lines and surfaces, and of surface treatment.
" Dictionary" o f cub ism. Today, more than three decodes ofter the start of cubism,
one 1s able to enumerate its characteristic features almost as o "dictionary." This
shows, by the woy, that the technique and spirit of photography d irecily or indirectly
influenced cubism. Cubism employs the following d istinctive meons:
1. Distortion.
2. Twisting of objects: the profile simultaneously turned en face (the pipe, tobleleg,
and gloss look like pressed flowers).
3. Sections: using ports instead of the whole.
4. Shifting: dislocation of ports. Refraction of Imes, and breaking continuous lines.
5. Superimpositions of different views of the objects.
6. Introduction of geometrically exact lines, straight and curved.
7. Change of positive-negotive planes or lines.
8. Many forms in one. Pluralism. A contour refers to several forms .
9. Objects: Letter types, envelopes, table, tobleleg, guitar, violin, fruit, fruit bowl,
gloss, bottle, face, dead bird, fish, panel, ploying cord, pipe, tobacco wrapper.
(The atmosphere generated by these objects is that of the Paris cofe.)
10. Motet1als and technique for surloce treatment: Corrugated cardboard, wollpoper,
marble, grainy wood, sand, newspaper print, marble dust, wire-mesh, combing,
sanding, scratching of the pigment.
Now the picture-plane itself begins lo be the subject for analysis. It is divided up. It is
conceived as a rigid body whose secret the artist attempts to reveal by means of line
and plane organization, visual illusion, color, rhythm, geometry, etc. The picture-plane
is activated by cutting and penetrating it, by turning it about and pulling off its skin.
The artist dispenses even with the relief-like sand, graphite, combed, and other sur-
face values which outomoticolly intensify colors by the simultaneous existence of shadow
and high-light. These values yield place to on illusionistic treatment, a patterning of
surfaces, which comes from o subtle distribution of differently colored light and dork
spots and features. The relief-like treatment is thu5 transposed into a plain surface
pattern.
The practical consequence of the cubist's discoveries could not at first be properly
appraised. Today we con see that through them space relations, materials and surface
treatment hove experienced o vitalization which, in its applicolion to our daily life
(even if with o superficial and half-intelligent application), hos shaken us out of o visual
lethargy.
A brie f s ummary of the present vis ual proble m. The development of the different
media and their inherent capacities for creation of pictorial space might be traced in
just the some way in the other pointers, who hove carried forward the work of the
cubists. They expressed similar ideas of o new space reolity - and independently of off
claims and associations with nature; in other words, they did not use nature os the point
of departure for their work.
37
 Ex pressionism
Abstract painting. The problem of pure color os o means of expression was intro-
duced by the post-impressionists (Cezanne, Seurat, van Gogh and Gauguin) and the
expressionists ("Briicke," Munch, Rouault). But already the impressionists and, more
consciously, Cezanne and the fouves 1Mat1sse, Deroin) used color for its psychophysico
quality, and for space-representation. Cezonne's pictures con be seen as exact and
vital representations of nature which ore created solely by advancing and receding
colors, In making such spotiol structures, Kandinsky went further. He used color as on
existence of its own, creating with it o new visual tension. This tension is measurable,
to a cer1oin extent, in the warmth and cold, nearness and distance, lightness and heavi-
ness, centrifugal and centripetal energies, and lux-volues of the color (Fig. 13).
It is interesting to note that not one of the new discoveries con be seen os on isolated
13. W. Kondintky, 1913. lmprovi•ation fact. All ore built upon o predecessor's work. For instance, some of the early Matisses
No. 30 (warlike Iheme). and Kondinskys con be regarded as ''close-ups" of a detail of Cezonne's pidures.
Almost the some things con be found in neoplosticism, supromotism and constructiv-
ism - in relation to cubism; especially if we look ol them from the viewpoint of space.
Cubism was already a new approach to space, expressed through revolYing objects, a
new conception of pictorial space, which included the clements of motion. This was
continued more consciously by the new pointer generation.
Ne oplasticism; Suprematism; Constructivism. With a more integrated approach
to every event in life, the neoplosticists, supremotists and constructivists have clearly
undel'3tood their materials, and hove tried to organize them. They hove deported
entirely from the traditional desire to mirror nature. They hove tried to use the visual
means of expression for the projection of order and harmony, without that distortion
of the unique meaning of visual means which is inevitable if the means ore obscured
by associations with the objects of the external world. The work of renovation is o
new evaluation of color, its optical energy, visual illusion and ofter-image, which
ore the means of a new kinetic spoce-fmc rendering.
Besides on intensified intuitive search, this work hos resulted in all-embracing struc·
turol relations, in place of the usual psychological associations, i.e., sentimental values.
The new approach has tried to eliminate all such values in favor of pure color relation-
ships It hos stood for direct expression, os well as for the value of seeing everything
os related. This hos become the activating force in the construction of a new life.
14. P. Mondrian. Composition, 1934.
Beginning with !he French Revolulion the idea of truth wos one of 1he fundo.
menlols of XIX century ideology. The "lrulh of the two dimensional plane" belongs
to pointing. 1'h1s is perhaps one of tho reasons why lho romonlicisls ond loter lhe
impression1sls storied to poinl onliroly Roi withoul lhe usual modeling of objecls.
Mondroon's slgnrliconce Is thol In order to eniOY the really elemenlol color sense·
lion, he reduced the color of his polelle to red, yellow ond blue, the subtrodive
primories: lhol ho sacrificed h1t knowledge oboul the mixtures of colors, except
tinted white ond block. He even gov• up the use of ony surfoce treolment, which
cubism prod1ced with grool delicacy He pul oul of action lhe oge-old psychologocal
ond opperceptove meon1ng of color and chonged them over into pure relationships
of spiritual values. W 11h h11 puriton approach and olmosl unbelievoble s•mplicity he
cteoted o spirih1cl greolneu to which we COii hardly r.nd a corresponding <ese in
the history of o•t.
One of the aims was to creole o new space, which was lo be produced through the
relations of the elemental material of visual expression - o new spoce created with
38
light directly, subordinating even point (pigment) - or at least sublimating it as for os
possible. The firsf steps toward such o concept were mode intuitively by the consfrvc-
~: ~-
tivist pointers. Their practice reached o technical first stage in the airbrush technique
and in the photogrom (Fig. 15). On polished surfaces, metals, synthetic materials, etc.,
there were sprayed very thin, iridescent, Aowing layers of point, lo which the reAecting
layer undemeoth gave on ethereal, fluctuat ing appearance (Fig. 16).
.... - i
The use of transporencies, the ability of the colors to change with subtlest differen-
tiation through o nearby color, etc., enriches considerably the scope of new space
relationships.
These actual reflections and mirrorings bring the surroundings into the picture,
15. Pholograpluc surfot t lrtotmenl olloining through this o pliability of surface which hos been striven for ever since
by l19hl1 o " pholQilrom," mode w•thoul the first days of impressionism.
o comero (by l . Moholy.Nogy) ,
This is the recording of light os ii h1I o projection screen - in this cose, the sensi·
rive layer of lhe photographic paper.
The surface becomes a part of the atmosphere, of the atmospheric background;
it sucks up light phenomena produced oulsidc itself - a vivid contrast to the classical
conception of the picture, the illusion of an open window.
This stage marks the close of impressionism; it represents the mastery of the surface,
not for atmospheric, but for plastic, spatial ends.
16. l. Moholy..No;y. Tronsporenl
Rec SOa ICo"11ruC1ion on Rhodo1d ). 1936.
Tbe ttew plost1u ollow o new type of V<£110I express OQ ro de•elop. G lass.I •
s..~ee!s, pliable, con be cuf'Wed convex o!Mf conco••· They con be perforoted so thoJ
r gnt ond pigment will be f1ned into o new un1ry. A11.ric•ol light sources (spotlighls.
- o•ing lomps} con cont1n11auily d>onge lht compot hon. This kind of pidvre is MOSI
ptobobly the pcmoge betwun eosel po1nl ng and l1ghl display, o ~w 1ype of
..,.,v;,,g p•du1es .
The flnal simplification of the picture.
The projection screen. Here is to be found tho interpretation of Molevich's la st
picture - the plain white surface,* which constituted on ideal plane for kinetic light
and shadow effects which, originating in the surroundings, would foll upon it. In this
way, Molevich's picture represented o miniature cinema screen.
If the projection is directed on a fllm sensitive to light, o photograph or photogrom
results (Fig. 15).
It seems - from the standpoint of technical deYelopment - that o picture pointed
by hand is surpassed by the physically pure, "unblemished" light projection.
Ever since the invention of the motion picture, pointers hove concerned themselves
with this problem: projection, motion, interpenetration of color and light. Photography
is doubtless o bridge.
• Molevlch, 1he greol svpreuiatisl pointer, al the dose of h1J uperimenlol -..ork, executed o pidure lhot
_ , marely c white canvas with 011 equolly white squore polnted on 11.
39
 Cvbism utilized photography in its study of svrfoce values. Photography, in turn, Ill. Volume (sculpture)
awoke to the possibilities of its own province ofter a decode of cubist experiment.
This applies also lo the use of simultaneous views in motion pictures, foreshadowed
in cvbism. Simultaneous odion was obtained, in cubism, by presenting at the some
time the object from above, from the side, and in cross-section, o juxtaposition and
superimposition of these views, in contrast to the postposition of cinema projection.
Futurism also took up problems, essentially of a cinematic kind, long before the
motion picture began to. We m:ght characterize futurism as o superimposition of the
object in o sequence of linear movement (Fig. 17), while cubism is the rendering of the
objects as if they were rotated in space.
This conception is not against hand pointing, so for as it meets individual or educa-
tional needs. Such manual methods will be, however, less effective than the mechanical
17. Bollo, 1913. "Speed." methods already available.
A p$ychol09icol ..perimenl mode ot the Univers•ly of Wiscons111 in Madison gives
o cfeor explonolion of how color is able to cho1>g• J•Xcs. Blad-, white yellow, green The general position. In the good middle-class home of yesterday, pictures and
ond blue cubes al the same sizes have been shown each beside the other. The white statues were loken.s of refinement. Art was envisaged 1n on external way, as the height
cube oppeiired to be the lorgetl, block la be the smallest. Yellow wos larger than of oll human attainments - just as technology is today idealized by many people.
green, ond blue wos 1maller than green. Tho 1ome phenomenon can be e><prened
with other words, the whole cube beong the largest appeared to be the nearest to the There was nothing more in this than cultural snobbery. The demand for "arr' - as for
spei:tolor, the black being the s"'ollest oppecred lo be 1he furthest oway from hi'll. soap - become o scale for measuring the cultorol standing of a notion. The pictures
This means that 11 o pointer should use these colors he would be oble lo change were enlarged decorot.ions, or illustrated stories, the sculpture, for decodes, cheap
their experimental choroclerislics w11h certain manipulations. Indeed, tho consrruc·
tivisls' work often offen the example that block moves in front ol while, e!c. The
plaster costs or bas-reliefs, often sporting trophies.
aiter·imoges ond the 1ubied1ve changH in the neighbor colors, these mosl interest·
ing phenomena, were un!ol now little observed. Howe..,er, they ore voluob!e meoru Public monuments? The sculptural form and its site were decided by politicians and
10 the pointers spiritual crahsmonsh•p. the traffic police.
The thorough 1h1dy of children's -•k will bring greater cla11fkohon in tlus
matter. When children poinl they olwoys operoto with o kind ol "i:olor outoma .Bui while many people in general slowly svcceed in establishing some sort of relation-
1ism" e.g., Ibey answer to every color or color group almost outOf"loticolly w:1h
ship between themselves and pointing, because of its subject and its attractive color
th• complementary1 or they use colors dependent Ol'I alter-images or on .. psyctio.
logical miidures." sculp~ure. stands .isolated. Most people look ot if as outsiders, and cannot imag·ne i;
enl~nng into the'.r experience. They usually see in sculpture only o poor "story.'· Deep
feeling for plastic relations, and their biological and social implications remain un-
explored.
This state of affairs led a whole generation lo the rejection of "art." They even denied
that there was justification for any form of pictorial or sculptural expressiol"
The ploy of refracted light. In the continuation of this work we undoubtedly must A r~oction set in when .it was recognized that this attack was directed, not against
come to the manipulation of moving, refracted light (color); we must "point" with the. existence of '.~e ~~eot1ve wo~ker, .but against the hypocritical attitude of 0 society
flowing, oscillating, prismatic light, in lieu of pigments. This will allow us o better which preached art, but deprived its members of its experience.
approach lo the new conception of spoce·lime. The woy was smoothed for o new development, which brought with it a radical
These means existing today - polarization, interference of light, and the control alteration in. pict~riol. and sculptural aims. The old notions of pointer and sculptor
of ortiflciol sources - offer on opportunity not lo be underestimated, even if for the ~rocke~; their social 01ms suddenly contained much more than the words hod implied
time being they fall into the hands of the creative artist only by chance or indirectly- in previous use and understanding.*
motnly in work with electrical advertising signs, or in stage settings.•
F~ndam~ntal ~ttitudes in treating materials. Sculpture con be approached from
d1ffer:nt v1ew~omts: those of the tool, material, form, volume, size, proportion, positive-
~e.gotive, sell 1ng, and expression. The most natural appreciation comes from the way
1t 1s mode.
• The reader moy eosily rePfooch this p<esenlotion of Iha problem of visvol creoloon for one.sidedness,
since ort "isms" importonl for the history of our limes - such os dadaism (Arp (fig. 18), Schwitlers,
Duchamp, Picobio, Grosx, Hciamonn), pur11m (JaoMerel, Ounfont), surreoH1111 (Chagoll, KlH, Err.st,
Mon Roy, Mosson, Mir6, Morgrifte, Dalo) - ore "eglecttcl. But I see the problem of " po ntong" os oee
of autonomous v·suol creation, ond not os the lllustroloon of o doctrine, e g., psyd>oonol)'5is, ond thus
• S'11u. t~e r:rs1 edlr on of tht.S boo~ o flllldomenlal opprooch to sculptural problttnJ ho, been mode by
hove 10 limit myself to such e><omples os will clarify this special pos loon.
C G ed on-We•cker '" Mr book, 'Modem Plost•c Ari ' (H. Girsberger Verlag, Zllrich, 1937).

41
 If several people ore handed o block, a piece of wood, for example, certain tenden- 4. equipoised }
cies will appear in their way of handling the material. . 5. kinetic (moving)• sculpture
At first the worker respects the homogeneity of the block. He proceeds cautiously with
T~1s development moy be summonzed as: from moss to lightening of weight, from
it, almost respectfully He examines it, feels it all over, estimates its weight, calculates static treatment to movement.
its moke·up, its dimensions, and often finds it sculpturally expressive because of the fine These ex~lonotions refer, in general, only to sculpture in the round, that is lo soy,
contour and formation of the original shape. to self-su~cie~t sculpture, that which finds its justification in itself, fulfilling tis own
Then he starts - in the possive mood of a spectator, or in the octive mood of on lows - like pictures - without relation to architecture.
experimenter, according to his temperament - to work on the block with o tool, his
purpose at first not being evident, but becoming clearer as he proceeds. As he goes on, The first stage. The piece blocked out:
he assumes with amazing keenness the role of a passionate and meticulous arltson. A material block, which shows its moss in plain, untouched volume (like the pyramids,
He becomes better acquainted with his material and his tools. He notes the relations and ~ther n~turol monuments and meteorites, the Cooba at Mecca; crystalline blocks
~ Cottslonton 8ronc:u11, 1926,
or prisms) (F19. 20). /
between full ond empty, between round ond angular, dull and shorp, small ond large, The fuh (polished brol\Ze) .
raised and recessed. He invents methods, discovers new implements, dares to proceed • In oppos1llon lo lhe ouihehc rule ol lhe poal 1hoi o sculpture musl ho•e 0 best"
more drastically: to make huge indentations, holes; he penetrates deeper and deeper side we posluloled lhe 1deo ol ihe .aculpiure in 1he round. The KUlpture in the round
into the block, producing in this woy negative volumes I' hollow spaces") Such step shows the some Quality of oll sides in o perfechon ond bolonce ol hs {hope, mosses,
''"ec' flow etc.i th111 Brancusi plO(ed ''tlte R1h " on o mechonoc:ally revolv·ng bose.
by step articulation of the material is the basic departure of all creative work. But to
articulate, one must thoroughly know the meons. This only con be achieved through
The second stage. The modeled (hollowed-out) block:
practical work.
Small and large moss (volume) relationships of salient ond sunken, positive and
Hand sculpture. When the student finishes his tactile chart, in which he discriminates negative, round and angular, sharp and dull (Fig. 21).
with his fingertips the different qualities of touch sensation, he hos to make a hand
sculpture (Fig. 19). Through this he registers the functions of the hands, that is, to
catch, to press, to twist, to feel thickness, lo weigh, to go through holes, etc. The result
is manifold: the student learns more intensively the different materials; he uses more
skillfully his tools and machines; and he starts lo think in the relations of volumes.
Hand sculptures ore nearest lo the timeless forms of any age because they express the
pure functions of the hands. They often evidence a likeness to the free shape sculptures
19 Edno Moue (Th~ New Bouhous,
of Hons Arp, Henry Moore and Barbaro Hepworth.
1937). Hcr>d sculplUI• in wood.
Sculpture is volume creation. When o man faces his materials, experiencing them
more and more, it becomes a factor in his thought that sculpture is the best form - the
original form - for toking possession of volume. Compared with volume, everything
else, the making, the weight, structure, representational idea, likeness, expression, pro-
portion, rhythm, consistency, and color, is secondary, belonging more to details.
They do not count primarily in the grasp of volume, or, therefore, in the plastic expres·
sion of sculptural values.
It must be observed, however, that this intensive method of conceiving volume hod,
in the course of cultural history, been more and more superseded by on intellectual
conception, that of likeness to the objects of the external world. Content overrode form,
and description supplanted grasp

The flve stages of the deve lopment of sculpture from the standpoint of
treatment of the material . In working with the material, ond in discovering the
volume relations as they become more and more clear, we moy set down various 21 . Alexonder Archipen~o. 1936,
Sculpture.

I
stages of plastic development - not merely for on individual, but for the history of
culture os well. l_h• u~.t tor the 11ul conscious use of conca. .s 1n iculpture - 10 replace soloenoes
- 11 due lo Arch1ptnlto. In usong ihis principle, he exploited the well-known opiicol
These stages ore: l . blocked-out illusion. OJ show11 in a relief motrrx (intaglio); tit• hollowed out fnegoiive) porhona
2. modeled (hollowed-out) sculpture
3. perforated (bored-through) • Since tlie pgblic.at~n of this book o new English , _ hos bnf1 introduced for ••t"net c:" ---'
tho! Is, "mobile." 1
' oui•p1ure,
,,
of the cost&ng model oppeor 1n ceitoin light 01 rosed (pos.ltwe). His ollempt leods
the obser.er, by il1 evident deviotion from the cuslomary nolurohst1c treatment, !o o
1eol;zot1on of the elemontol)' pou1b1l1t1es of the pos1tin-negoll•e relations.

The third stage. The perforated (bored-through) block is the third stage. After master-
ing lhe relations of various degrees of positive and negative volume, on intensive
penetration of the material follows, creating contrasts. The completely perforated
sculpture is o heightening lo the very limits of hollow and full (Figs. 22-26). How prev
lent the old-fashioned idea of the block still is, is shown by the completely perforated
sculptures of Jacques lipchitz (Fig. 25). He assures the visitor that the sculpture
assembled, but is "drown" From a single piece.
22. Auguste Rodin, 1900. Purgatory.
Wherher 11aturat1st1c or stylized, whether sculpture ln round or rel;ef, wherlter
executed 500 years OllO or today, the same stages may be noted 1n the treatment of
the mote1ial and the grasp of •alume.
24. N. Gobo, 1926. Construction.

Engineering ossembfolje os an economrcal working principle has had 0 funda-

mentol influence on the new 1cutpturol creation.
Fa'.thot matter, the principle of auembling moteriols is effective in every field of
c1eot1on. We llnd it in the technique, olla in pointing as collqge, in photography
os photomon'.age, in the film, os ~diting ond culling, in the film muiic where frog·
ments of various moods ore combined, and in the literature as the stream of con.
sciousneu or outamatic writing.
220. The New Bauhaus, r.rst semester, Already Romon sculpture showed the co11Scious use of metals, In cambinahan with
1937 {lrom left to right}. Sculptures marble of drllerent colors. Bui these statues (in the louvre) look ta us today much
by K. Q"Brien, W. Greene, T. Von t ke applied ort. Archrpenko was the first who mode the attempt with assembled
Vossen, 8. Rubin, P. Pavlicek. sculptures. It was a challenge to the applied art evaluation of materials. He did not
~nt lo give the illusion with hrs moteriols of the upper wrfaces {silk, skin, etc.}.
In the ll'odehng clan the itudents work with the re at onsh·ps of YOhm:es, pos t"'e Hos wood wos la stand for wood, his metal for metol, etc., and have its own value.
and 11egotive, full and hallow, vohiH ol shopes end p•oi:ort or.J olld surface treat. The l11trododion of the high polished surface, machine-like assemblage of the
ment or different kinds. new constructivist sculptures become the harbinger of "industrial art...

23. l. Moholy-Nagy, 1921. Nlchl

scvlpture. 25. Jacques Llpch1t~. 1928.
So,,lpture !bronze),
The completely perforoted, completely bra~en-through, p ece of sculpt11re demands
on tf.e one hond a de.eloped technocal knowledge, and on the o'her hood o mind One could make an anolysi1 of tre<ttment of matenal, proporhons, psychrc and
that WO<h obstractly1 a frHmg of maletiol lrom •s we ght, a poss' ng beyond expres· compos•llonal focfon. etc., for most exompl" of sculpture. We restrict 011rselves la
s anal ends. l'Ole the stage of volume grasp.

45
•

Succession in time. In the history of sculpture these stages of plostic development
occur success•vely Each closed culture (Egypt, Greece, Mexico, Indio) shows, ot the
beginning, the borely modeled block, and, os a next step, the more or less carefully
modeled piece, penetrated too greater or less extent. Complete perforation appears
to hove been the last discovery. This is found outside Europe, among some of the so.
called ''primitive peoples· Indian, Negro and South Seo), where sculpture creation
rests on very old traditions, and where the usual moterials - wood or clay - ore not
hard to work.
Geometrical and b iotechnical elements. Until a short time ago, geometrical ele-
26 Johonnes Zobel IBauhaus, first
umester, 1973). Construction in equilob· ments, such as the sphere, cone, cylinder, cube, prism, and pyramid, were token as the
rium (balanced on a small sutfoce) .
The sculptor of today knows usually little of engineering problems. Div,.1on of
surfaces. the golden sect.on and tha loke, ore, to be sure, taught in the ocodemiel,
but nothing about statocs, mothemotiu, technology, although on uftderstondrng of
these would be mote helpful than ealhatic rul1u rn suggesting on effoeient wo1lr.ing
metl,od. The conslructiv1sts attempted to break the fetters. In thetr nud ol golfing
owoy from o lolse ethos, from an exceuive respect for fossilized worh, their slogan
become, "Alt is d•ad, long live lifel"
The artist ol ye,.erdoy concerned himself but h1tle os lo noel cokulolions ol
balance 1n hrs work. Con1ide1otrons al a few pounch, or e;en al a hundredwe•ght
more Of less, did riot enter into the older sclJlpture ot all. In the Inst lute of Oesi911
the students ore taught to have strrcl regard !or these components ond ounces so~ed
- the effect remaining the some - often represent a little victory of ingenuity.
foundation of sculpture. But biotechnicol elements now hove been added as o new
group ovoilable for application. In spito of this, the form concept of sculpture, the
ploslic form, is understood in this book as the stages of plastic development - and not
os the application of geometric or biotechnicol elements (solids).
Biotechnicol elements formerly entered more particularly into technology, where the
functional conception. called for the greatest economy. Raoul Fronce hos distinguished
seven biotechnicol constructional elements: crystal, sphere, cone, plate, strip, rod, and
77. The seven brotechn•col elernenll1 spiral (screw); he soys that these ore the bosic technical elements of the whole world
crystal, sphere, cone, plaie, strip, rod, (Fig. 27). They suffice for all its processes, and ore sufficient to bring them to their
ond 1p;rol (screw) .
optimum. The constructive application of these elements, in particular the spiral [screw),
hos led to solutions tho• ore astonishing in their relation to earlier (baroque) aesthetic
principles.
Today we consciously employ the whole stock of biotcchnical elements, and the
outcome is o new conception of beauty - cxemplified by radio towers, spiral stairwa ys,
chemical plants, etc.
The fourth stage of sculptural deve lopment. What comes beyond the complete
perforation of the third stage is o speculation that we, still deeply rooted in our yester-
days, con scarcely grasp; o bold sublimation of the material, o triumph of relations.
It is the equipoised sculpture a self-contained volume. Its preparation con be traced in
the successive $leps of sculptural development.
Whereas static works of sculpture, resting on o base, occupy o certain position in
relation to their surroundings, and also hove relations or direction lo the ground - hori-
zontal, vertical, oblique - equipoised sculptures contain, theoretically, relations of
mo1eriol and volume only within therr own system.
A6
28. Irmgard SOrenHn·Popitz IBauhou1,
r.rsl semeiler, 192AI. Equ1poi..d
1<11tp1ure (illu1iono1tic).
The molerral values, f1ex1bolo1y, lomits ol elongot1on, elosloc•ly, elc., we<e re<lol'\ed
"" for oxornple, the strop of ;Jan at rbe bott- comes a max mum weight.
29 R. Koppe (Rot 1emester, 19371.
Virtupl volume produced through tire
!Otolion of o w1t• construction
30. Virt110I volume. A lighted merry·
l)O·round revolving (Blocicpool, fnelond).
V.rtuct, but v1s1ble •olume (motion!
Freedom from relations to points external to the sculpture constitutes the fourth stage
of sculptural development. This stage hos os yet scarcely been realized.
The first attempts at creating equipoise mode uso of on illusionistic solution. The
sculpture, instead of being placed on o base - leaving it still o sort of high relief -
was ereded on o few points of support (But if these points of support hod been con-
nected, the old brood base would hove re appeared.) At o later stage of development
the illusion was heightened by the use of g1oss, or of almost invisible wires, by which
the sculpture was hung (Fig. 28).
Examples of equipoised sculpture which do not depend on such on illusion ore, for the
present, difficult to find. Such sculpture must effectively be kinetic as well, since only
through the action of opposed forces con it be brought lo balanced rest, to equipoise.
Analogous solutions can be seen in balloons, orrplones and toys. All these ore limited
in their formal quality by unavoidable considerations of the mechanism, of the machin-
ery which must overcome gravity. An actual realization of equipoised sculpture con
be mode through the application of magnetic forces, or with electric remote control.
Such o possibility con be demonstrated by on electromagnetically controlled meta l
bar Rooti ng between two gloss plates.
Within the system of ~quipoised sculpture we And again the three earlier stages of
sculptural form: 1 the block; 2. the modeled, 3. lhe perforated.
The fifth stage. In the lightening of masses, the next slop beyond the equipoise is
kinetic equipoise in which the volume relationships are virtual ones, i.e., resulting
mainly from the actual movement of the contours, rings, rods, and other objects. Here
the mater al s employed as o vehicle of motion. To the three dimensions of volume,
o fourth - movement - {in other words, lime is added) (Fig. 29).
The heavy block of Molenol, the mpenelrable volume, becomes transformed into o
spheric extension, seemingly without moss and heaviness; it becomes o weightless
poising of volume relationships and inlerpenetrotions. With this transformation, the
original phenomenon of: sculpture = material ...J.. moss relations, changes to the de-
materialized and highly intellectualized formula: sculpture = volume relationships.
Duality of volume? This progress obliges us to use the term "volume" 1n several
connotations (though basically they ore formulations of the some meaning).
W e mean by volume:
1. The clearly circumscribed moss, o body of measurable weight, tangible in the three
dimensions, height, width and depth.
2. Negative volume produced by holes and openings, perceived visually, which, a l-
though bodiless, is a n outstanding plastic element.
3. The motion of points (smallest bodies), linear elements, planes or bodies which
produces virtual volume os o new element of plastic creotton.
To sum up what has already been stoled, sculpture rs the path both from moteriol-
volume to virtual volume, and from tactile-grasp to visual-grasp.
Sculpture is the poth to the freeing of o material from its weight: from moss to
motion (Fig. 30).
47
 Parallel p henomena . We con find very close parallels to this tendency of plastic
development, that is, to the lightening up or dissolution of material.
If we turn, for example, to the transformations of water, we come upon a surprising
phenomenon - surprising not in its strangeness, but m its commonplaceness We know
water in rest, in motion, in gaseous form, in liquid and solid form. We know it os tiny
drops, os the smooth reflecting surface of o pond, stretching for and wide. We knOVt
it as o placid or rushing brook, os o raging sea, as pottering rainfall, os a spra ying
fountain, as o drifting cloud of steam. We know it frozen: os snow crystal, frosted
window pones, icicles, etc. Its changes arise from on extraordinary adaptability to
the forces acting upon it.
One may easily feel moved to employ water as a medium of expression. In earlier
history, water, so responsive to adaptations, was recognized os on important medium
of creation, and its natural possibilities were exploited according to the expression
wonted. Its form was changed from o tranquil moss to complete dissolution into an
almost ethereal form; from the calm lakes of baroque porks to gushing fountains, or
to a chain of foaming cascades.
All such efforts were directed toward displaying water under as many aspects as
possible; and demateriolization ployed an important port in the process.
The relations. In every cultural period a phalanx of active forces presses forward in
every field of creation, in art, science and technology. It often happens that quick
action in one or another pushes a member of this united front forward, like an advanc-
ing wedge. This condition does not lost long; the others surge onward too, and the
31 George' Vontongerloo, 1917.
C0111trvciioti w•th1n o sphere 0$ if the phalanx is re-united.
outef shell hos been removed.
A new oxporlment; the powb1lihtJ of mo•tment w•thin o sphere ore immob•lired
,., the moter1ol, ond shown projected in stollc form.
Thus 0 similar quest for expression by subduing or lightening the material is to
be found . .
in s culpture: from moss to motion (Figs. 29-32);
In painting: from colored pigment to light (display of colored light);
In music: from instrumental tones lo electronic purity (ether wove music);
In poe try: from syntax and grammar to relations of single words;
In architecture: from restricted closed spaces to free fluctuation of forces.
32. Joosl Schmidt, 1928.
Hyperboloid sculpture.
The nectll ty of st\ldying vittuol votu111e comes todoy through the outomoto,
machines. ond appliances mo•ed by alectnctly Of other lorm1 of power.
Much co11ld be co111nbuted lo Kulpturol expenence w:lh ortificiol odjus!able
lighting, plonned in odvonce, os opposed lo previous works of sculptvre SO to
1peok "daylight sculpture' seen woth the light enttring frOl'll obo•e. Bur if o po;nrer·
Kulpt~r otlempls something on the way of "light scutptvre" his enthusiasm soon
encounters prochcol obslocles, ,,net private means ore not sufficient for compre·
hensive exparimentotion.
Fuewo1ks ore ploy ond Kitnce ot the some t;me They olso g"e evidence thot o
ptecolc11lohon of d•1ec11on, movement, color, etc., moy proouce o sens•bie ougme"-
tohon of lhe tfftch . However, "'' ore todoy still ofro•d of ..deliberateness.. t11 o
•·..orl of ort" - ond to be sure the intelltctuol scope or.cl effect o! "on," in the
judgment of the " expert;' would hove lo be on on 1ncomporobfy higher plane tbon
.,, 0 re .. ploy"I
The photograph of o fireworli, llS\lolly o hme expoiure, 1ag:11ers lhe sequence of
the uplodong firecrochrs on the some pocture plona thus showing spotiol "simul·
toneity'" of their paths· on interpenetrol•on of ltme ond space
The history of kinetic s culpture. The history of kinetic sculpture begins for bock in
ancient history, with the very first Greek clockwork automata. As a step toward kinetic
sculpture tn our own time, one may mention certain toys, advertising signs, fountains,
fireworks, and the like. These often contain interesting suggestions for experiments.
The futurists come forward os conscious propogondists of the dynamic as o principle
of artistic creation. Boccioni presented the first "dynamic" pieces of sculpture in his
book "Pittura, scultura futuristo (dinamismo plastico)." In 1912 he wrote:
"The futurists broke down the concept of repose - the static - and put forwa rd thar
of motion - the dynamic. They showed o new grasp of space by bringing into contrast
the inner and the outer."
Written as o challenge to the aims of the Russian constructivists, the "Realist
Manifesto" of Gaba and Pevsner, of Moscow, was published in 1920 ("i 10," No. 7,
Amsterdam, 192n.* Here are excerpts from it:
"Space and time are the two exclusive forms for fulfillment of life, and therefore a rt
must be guided by these two basic forms, if it is lo encompass true life.
"To incorporate our experience of the world in the forms of space and time: this is
the single goal of our creative ort.
"We deny volume as a spatial form of expression: space can os little be measured
by a volume as liquid with a measuring slick. For whot could space be, beyond on
impenetrable depth? Depth is the only form of expression of space.
"In sculpture we eliminate (physical) moss as o plastic element. Every engineer knows
that the static power and the power of resistance of an object do not depend on
moss. One example will suffice: railway tracks. Notwithstanding this fad, sculptors
labor under the prejudice that mass and contour are indivisible.
"We free ourselves from the thousand-year-old error of art, originating in Egypt,
that only static rhythms can be its elements. We proclaim that for present-day per-
ceptions, the most important elements of art are kinetic rhythms."
1See page 74, the In 1922 I published, in collaboration with Alfred Kemeny, a manifesto on "The
"Lighl·prop," 1922·30 I dynamic-constructive system of forces" (''Sturm" No. 12/1922, Berlin). I quote some
sentences:
"Constructivism means the activation of space by means of a dynamic-constructive
system of forces, that is, the constructing within one another of forces actually at tension
in physical space, and their construction within space, also active as force (tension}.
"We must therefore put in the place of the static principle of classical art the dynamic
principle of universal life. Stated practically: instead of static material construction
(moleriol and form relations), dynamic construction {vital constructivism and force rela-
tions) must be evolved, in which the material is employed as the carrier of forces.
"Carrying further the unit of construction, o dynamic constructive system of force is
attained, whereby man, heretofore merely receptive in his observation of works of a rt,
• Th11 ho1 been tronsloted in lull in "An of This Cenrury," edited by Peggy Guggenh•·m, N. Y. 1942.

experiences a heightening of his own faculties, and becomes himself on active partner
with the forces unfolding themselves.
..The first projects looking toward the dynamic-constructive system of forces con be
only experimental, demonstration devices for the testing of the relations between
man, material, power and space. Next comes the utilization of the experimental results
for the creation of freely moving (free from mechanical and technical movement) works
of art."
Light. In this connection, light - as time-spatial energy and its projection - is on
outstanding aid in propelling kinetic sculpture, and in attaining virtual volume.
Ever since the introduction of the means of producing high-powered, intense artificial
light, it hos been one of the elemental factors in art creation, though it has not yet
been elevated to its legitimate place. The night life of o big city con no longer be
imagined without the varied ploy of electric advertisements, or night air traffic without
lighted beacons along the way. The reflectors and neon tubes of advertising signs, the
blinking letters of store fronts, the rotating colored electric bulbs, the brood strip of the
electric news bulletin ore elements of a new field of expression, which will probably
33. N. Lerner (New Bouhous. not hove to wait much longer for its creative artists (Fig. 33).
fi111 Hml!lter, 1937). lighl volume ttudy.
Lerner comments on hi1 1tudy 01 follows: "Usually light wos not '°nsidered os
plollrc rneons, only os on 011•1l1ory medium lo ind1cole moteriol existence. Now o
new period starts ""1ere light will be u1ed 01 o genuine l!leon1 of expreuion because
of 111 own qualities, own choroderlstics. This photogroph1c ..pe1imen1 reveals the
fluid plostoc1ty of light, its ob1l1ty to 1od1ote, pou, infiltrate, encircle. Also 11 reveals
that through these actions light is oble ro creole negative patterns, lightless volumts
which may be, in limo 10 come, as importonl os its universally opprec1oted opposite:
lighl ieflection."
The creative manipulation of light con be discussed under two main headings:
1. Light displays in the ope n air:
o) the illuminated advertising displays of today still generally consist of linear patterns
on flat surfaces. It is our task to enter the third dimension by the use of special materia ls
and reflectors;
b) gigantic searchlights and sky-writers already ploy on increasingly important role in
advertising displays and
c) pro;ections on to clouds or other gaseous backgrounds through which one con wollc.
drive, fly, etc.;
d) light displays will form on impressive port of future municipal celebrations, reveal-
ing to the spectator, seated in on airplane, a vast exponse of light with ever changing
planes and ongles, on interminable network of multi-colored beams.
2 . Indoor light displays:
a) the film with its unexplored possibilities of projection, with color, plasticity a nd
simultaneous displays, either by means of on increased number of pro1ectors concen-
trated on 0 single screen, or in the form of simultaneous image sequences covering all
the walls of o room;
b) reflecled light displays of pattern sequences produced by color organs; such dis-
plays may be open for many or limited to a few; they may be individual improvisations,
isolated nature or they may be multiplied by means of television;
c) the color piano whose keyboard is connected with a series of graduated lamp unifs,
illuminates objects of special materials and combines the pion of pattern with color;
50
d) the light fresco that will animate vast orch1tec1ural units, such as buildings, parts of
buildings or single walls, by means of artificial light focused and manipulated accord-
ing to o definite pion. In all probability a special place will be reserved in lhe dwellings
of the future for the receiving set of these light frescoes, just as it is today for the radio.
Ability to re cognize a ce rtain stage of sculptural d evelopme nt does not neces-
sarily mea n an a esthetic exp e rie n ce. The forego ng is for from on exhaustive
treatment of the problem of sculptural creot•on. Only the first steps hove been explained.
The five stages of plosf c development offer merely rough differentiations of the outword,
technical conception, through which one may recognize the greater spiritual problems
involved in perceiving sculptural form. The complete experience of sculpture implies -
along with intuitive grasp - knowledge of the workings of other elements as well.
Such elements - which again ore only first steps - are the geometrical and bio-
technicol elements of construction, lows of light, motion, size, mass (proportion), rela-
tions of structure, texture, surface treatment, representation, expression, etc.
As is the case everywhere, 1t 1s true here that a wide and comprehensive knowledge of
characteristics and elements is less important for creative work than the capacity ond
the courage to build up new relations among the clements of expression already at
hand, to raise them above the commonplace by giving them o new rnterpretotion -
sometimes through shifting their meaning. This stole of mind is most successfully attained
if one relies on the center of certainty in the active human being, whose existence and
responsibility ore grounded in the actual - in the social sphere.
Without this sureness, elements harmonious in themselves can never grow into on
organism. They remain only a series, forming perhaps a rich arabesque, but of no
significance in the sense of building up the biological "nourishment" of man.
A bypath . Before discussing an encyclopoed1a of the elements of sculptural creatton,
we must speak of the purpose of the representation, and the related questions of
psychic expression and its intensity of effect These factors ore still considered the most
essential in sculpture, although they do not fundamentally belong to the elements from
which the plastic creation is built up in its purest form.
Re prese ntation. To primitive man representation of on ob1ect probably meant the
some thing as being able lo seize the original, to own it personally. It brought the real
object which moved or overpowered him before his eyes in graspable dimensions.
At times he tried, in this way, lo put the object depicted to his service. The incompre-
hensible fact of death he mode tangible by the death mask, which was likewise the
origin of the portrait. By mummification man was changed into a doll; the dead ancestor,
the root of the family, remained as a mummy in the family possession. A later stage
sublimated this process. The possessive point of view was extended to beings who lived
only in the world of imogmohon. There was a presentment of ancestors not personally
known, of gods, personified powers of a rich pantheism Captured within o definite
shape, they thus become - even 11 proyed to as deities - servants of man
Cloy, wood, stone come to life under the artist's hands. After that, the attempt was
mode to repeat things that moved him, in their outwardly projectable, experienced,
or representational shapes. He perceived, too, the existence of the typical, and what
was common to different phenomena was re-created in similarities of representation.
Then, one day, slight deviations from tl,e typical were observed. To the original obser-
vation of the typical features were added individual characteristics.
51
 The slightest twitchings of the muscles of the face and body were given their values
in expression. The whole representation was brought down to infinitely fine gradations.
The way led from the typical to the individual And when no further progress in this
direction wos possible, when the representation hod again reached mask like mechani-
cal perfection, o rebound occurred. Instead of quivering, tangible naturalism, there
was 0 neutralizing calm, stylization, rigidity, and suppression of the individual, o striving
for indifference toward the psychological In the next stage this led to o stressing of
the psychophysical (sensory-reactive) effects of factors of volume, shape, reloliori
and material. This was o great discovery: o genuine language ovoiloble for expre$SiOfL
In the transitional period objects were represented in which no value wos placed in
regard to psychic factors, such os on absinthe gloss, o violin. later, in constructivisll\
even the neutral object disappeared The aim was no longer the reproduction of objects
in the search for o resemblance to life, not the representation of the object, or even of
sentiment but the establishing of relations of volume, moteriol, mass, shape, directio11
position ~nd light, symbolizing the meaning of o new reality, based upon all-embracing;;
relationships.
As to precepts of harmon y. From the very beginning of cultura l history there ~ere
efforts to work out formulas which could resolve the intuitive factors of human expenence
into predictable and manageable plastic expression. There hove been . repe~led
efforts to lay down canons which, if followed, ore supposed to assure proficiency '" Q
chosen field of creation.
Today we ore skeptica l about the rules of harmony. We do not believe in mechonico
recipes for art. We know that harmony does not abide in on aesthetic formula but in the
organic and uninterrupted functioning of each element within the entity. From this
point of view, the knowledge of canons of any kind is much less important Iha~ the
presence of the right human equilibrium. To opprooch o work From o bolonced otfllude
is almost the some os to solve ii in o harmonious form. It is to give ii true "meoning.
In this attitude, and not in the canons of harmony, lies the "mysterious·· power which cao
give to 0 sincere expression - embodied in a specific moteriol - its harmony, os weU
os its justification. Of course, "human equilibrium" is not on absolute measurement
but is dependent on biological, psychological ond social components.•
Precep ts o f f unction? The biological moke-up of man is the source of organic eic
pression. From this point of view one might attempt to incorpora te its drives in precepts
in regard to function.** It would then be possible to set forth "directions for use"
organic - not "harmonious" - application of the clements.
Indeed, this hos been attempted. The old teachings about proportion were
based on biological assumptions, translated into geometry, which wos the visual mat he-;
• S•• of 1ho Bouhe>u$ books (Verlog Alberl longen, MuntehJ doscuu lhis quul;on:
ff.to •on Ooe>burg , GronJbt9t1ff• der ne1>en g.iroll•nden Kurur,
W. KonclonP:y, Punll und t.nie 111 Floclte.
Paul Klee, Padogogiichu Sk1zzenbuclt, (1ronsl. as P&dcge>g•col Ske:chboo~. New York, 19A3)
Kos•m•r Malevkh, Die gegenilondsloso Well, (lo be lronsloted in 0 MA.I
p,, 1 Mondrian, Neue G1"sle>f1tJng, Id. Plostic Ari ond Pure Ple>sl•c Ari, O.M.A., New York, 19A5)
l. Moholy Nagy, Von Motettol zu Arch •ellur, (lroMI os Jhe Now Vision , 31d edrl on, 0 M.A .. 19461
• • In the mogo:tine ; 10 lpubHshed in tiollond) He;nrw:h Jacoby on11oo.rnced 011 article on '"The commoa
bt0log eel bosos 0 1 oil cnoll•e ""or~ ... 0-e orr cle •Ol r.e•cr publ1$hed 1mlortunotely, bul the I t'e !>CD
bun vmclicated beyond doubt by Jacoby s pre<iOllS ....orh
57
motics of ancient times. They measured human proportions according to "the golden
section.' All these measurements were based upon a primitive geometry, the hexagra m,
and other laws of ha rmony. The11 importance hos not diminished, especially in rega rd
to pointing, since cubism a nd constructivism do not hide al all their basic geometric
construction. However, lo supplement these constructions, there is need of o thorough
co-ordination of the lows lo which man is subject, ond upon which his biological ex-
istence depends. Higher mothemat1cs, physics, and other sciences con perhaps toke
the lead, so that a dear presenloflon of these lows con be offered os o foundation for
functional expression. They might give us the key to all the phenomena which we
perceive os ha rmonious.
But who is capable of codifying the lows of human functions for that purpose?
A method of observation directed more toward fundamentals would inevitably lead
lo the recognition that the biological functions of man ore not only of amazing multi-
tude, but also of extroordinory subtlety, and that, in the11 borderlands, countless possi-
bilities lie dormant, awa iting stimuli to coll them forth.
For every human motion, for example, there 1s a corresponding bodily position, o nd
in these various positions, the body is olwoys in on equilibrium which is attained by
reAex actions. Thus the humon organism, even in unforeseen, complicated situations
exhibits, mentally ond physically, inwa rdly and outwardly, an unparalleled "quick-
wittedness." The constant reodiness of each organ to function, to ploy its port, os the
occasion demands, within the structure as a whole, makes possible the body's capacities
for on organically conditioned functional behavior. This, and nothing else, is the basis
of its "harmony," os well os the "proof" of its ··right" design.
O ne hos only lo observe how o man, suddenly attacked, instinctively assumes o
position of defense; how a man catches his bolonce when he stumbles or slips. O ften
the movements ore too rapid for observation, ond here the slow-motion picture comes
to the assistance of the eye The foll of o skier, for example, photographed with the
slow-motion comero, loses any element of the grotesque, and becomes o balanced,
harmonious action. It seems that the next step in analyzing harmony must be more
connected with the lows of kinetics than with the lows of statics.
Pre ce pts of e le m e nts? We con approach the problem from a nother side. Every
expression may be resolved into o series of elements Every element is registered physio-
logicolly, a nd every physiological experience hos also its psychological equivalent
The sensory-reactive (psychophysical) effect of sensorily percep11ble elements (color,
lone, etc.) forms the bosis of our relations to ob1ects end expression. It forms a lso the
material basis of a rt.
For the sensory-rea ctive (psychophysical) effect of elements, we os yet possess no
uniform data, a side from some expressions of popular speech. For example: green is
the color of envy, and blue of depression. Bulls are said lo be infuriated by red. The
music of the gloss organ brings tears to the eyes.
Primitive peoples still hove knowledge of the psychophysical effects of food a nd
drink. It is thought, for instance, that the management of the kitchen insures for women
in primitive societies - more than elsewhere - mastery over men.
In o single field, that of color, preliminary steps toward cloriflcotion have been token.
Goethe attempted to determine the sensory.reactive effect of the various colors, and
of combinations of colors, but his terms were not sufficiently differentiated to be applied
lo paintings, with their complex color combinations.
S3
 The production of new forms may be founded on:
In o teaching of the psychophysical effects .:>f cotor, countless fine grodotions should
be elaborated, ood even these would change their meaning if their shape or position 1. relations of measurements (lhe golden section, and other proportions}
were changed. The number of coses presented by practice is so greot thot every example position (measurable in angles)
must be expressed in the subtlest nuances of language, if it is not to ltad to false movement (speed, direction, push, intersection, telescoping, interlocking,
results, in regard to other combinations. Furthermore, in the course of time the very penetration, interpenetration}
elements may change their meaning. An effect is often dulled by repetilion; whot
elicited a keen reaction in one period, may in the next be worn out. And even our 2. the different aspects of moteriols
predisposition toward certain reactions to given phenomena may itself alter. Thus structure
texture
we coo understood that the effect of the richer combinations of colors, as contained
in a picture, for ex.ample, cannot really be grasped by logical and habitual asso. surface treatment
mossing
ciations processed verbally. We perceive such effects for the most part independently
of intellectual processes, more or less unconsciously. If this interpretation is accepted,
it must be evident that exoct formulations are possible only where the psychophysical
3. light (color; visual illusion: reflection; mirroring).
eff~d of the single element In o certain shape and position is under consideration -
The relationship of forms may become effective as:
and nol even there with certainty. As soon as these single elements ore combined with
1. contrasts
one another, the possibility of exoct description of their effect ceases. The elements may
2. deviations
be employed according to a known arrangement, and still there will result, independent
3. variations
of any conscious control, another structure.
a) shifting, dislocation
In spite of this, and without trying to soy thot the totality of an expression comes
b) repetition in series
from mere addition of its ports, o familiarity with the basic elements of expression may ( and their combinations
c) turning
be of valuable assistance. These elements may be welded into o synthesis if an
orgonic desire for expression gives on impetus for it This does not, to be sure, estab-
d) mirroring ~
lish a system of harmony - but it leaches at least the elementary principles of pro-
ducing quality. The scope of such o study is lo survey and organize all the ulilizable The difficulty of application . The difficulty of applying these elements lies - os
elements of expression. This study of the basic elements may then ploy the role of a well- already mentioned - in our newly changed conception: from static to kinetic.
stocked chest of tools, or of a dictionary, but it cannot give security to the creative Harmony, in classical terminology, means lfonquility, the crystollized position of the
work itself elements. The new kinetic form of creative work implies a steady Au>t, sometimes o
At limes it is sufficient to show a man the rich choice of elements al his disposal, rapid change, o constant shifting of the position of the elements. Geometric rigidity
and his inner assurance will lead him to select in accordance with his own desire for comes to an end.
expression. The building of organic relations to effective unity must then be left to It is significant that even the static constructions of our day are already influenced
his own powers; the way of using the elements can be directed only by socia-biologi· by these tendencies, derived from the new kinetic reality which began with the motion
cal necessities. picture. They have overthrown the validity of some age-old observations, e.g., the
decisive importance of size and weight, which become negligible by the introduction
An attempt. We may outline o framework of a systematization of the elements of
of motion.
artistic creation. The outline itself is an abstrod, which may be worked out concretely
in any given moterial.
Such a survey offers at first only o deepening of knowledge, an assistance in en-
hancement of the cultivation of vision and other senses. But it may become also er
stimulus lo creative work, which must, however, acquire its meaning, as has been so
often slated in this book - from within, from the biological.
Outline of a general system of elements.
A gePterol systemotizotion of elements is based upon the relations of
I. forms already known, such os
mathematical and geometrical forms;
biotechoicol forms;
II. newly produced forms, such as
free forms.
SS
 Space is a reality. Despite this bewildering array, we know thol space is o reality
IV. Space (a rchite cture)
of sensory experience. It is o human experience like others; it is o means of expression
like others. Other realities, other moleriols.
Space is o reality, and once it hos been comprehended in its essence, it con be
grasped according to its own lows, and arranged according to them. As a molter of
fact, man hos constantly tried to use this reality (i.e., this material) in the service of his
urge for expression, no less than the other realities which he has encountered.
Space experience is not a privilege of gifted architects, but is a biological Function
of everyone. The biological base of space experience is everyone's endowment,
just as is the experient:e of color or of tone. By practice and suitable exercises this
capacity can be developed. To be sure, there will be many degrees of difference, from
minimum to maximum capacity, but basically space experience is accessible to every-
one, even in its rich, complicated forms.
Its grasp is of the greatest help in conceiving any design.
Definitio n of space. Every cultural period has its own conception of space, but it Space is the p osition re lation o f b o dies. A definition of space which may at least
tokes time for people consciously to realize it. This is the cose with our own spatial be taken as o point of departure is found in physics - "space is the relation between
conception. Even in defining it, considerable hesitation prevails. This uncertainty is the position of bodies."
evident in the words we employ; and the words increase the confusion. Therefore: spatial creation is the creation of relationships of position of bodies
What we know of "space" in general is of little help in assisting us to grasp it as {volumes). On the basis of volume analysis, we con understand bodies, whether large
on actual entity. or minute, in their smallest extensions, e.g., thin plates, sticks, rods, wiring, and even as
relations among limits, terminations, and openings (Fig. 34). The definition of course
The diffe rent kinds of s p ace.* We speak today of: 3A Space relationship ueoled must be tested by the means by which space is grasped, thol is, by sensory experience.
through the position of rods.
mathematical isotropic
This type or relolionship gives lht eternal pattern for the use of columns os orchi·
physical topographic ledurol means.
geometric projective One usually underJlonds ipol iol reloliomhip in reference lo archileelure but in
metric reality mol'ly spoliol relationships exist besides those of 01chited ure. To demonslrole
Euclid ion
o simple but ridi spotiol effect , one should slido lllJ hands up ond down ond righl
non-euclidion homogeneous end left. The relationship of the fil'lgers each to the other creoles changing position
architectural absolute of bodies (rods) which gives a ~potool sensation. This is o bosic exercise ol o spotiol
relative o b c In uperimentot exomplH of spotiol exercise.J the role of the movil'l!I fll'gers
dance con be exchanged into movable linear elemenl1 which produce spatial effects.
pictorial fictive
scenic abstract
The me ans. Each of the senses with which we record lhe position of bodies helps us
spherical actual
to grasp space. Space is known first of all by the sense of vision. This experience of
crystalline imaginary space the visible relations of bodies may be checked by movement - by the alteration of
cubic finite
one's position - and by means of touch (Fig. 34).
hyperbolic infinite
From the point of view of the subject, space can be experienced most directly by
parabolic limitless
movement, on a higher level, in the dance. The dance is on elemental means for
elliptical universal
realization of space-creative impulses. It con articulate space, order it.
bodily etheric
Vaudeville, circus, stage, cinema, and light display con be of the some order of
surface inner
space creation.
lineal outer
Further possibilities for experiencing space lie in the organs of hearing ond of
one-dimensional movement
balance,• and in other possible space-experiencing sensory centers of our body, as
two-dimensional hollow
three-dimensional vacuum • In tho "Buch der 1000 Wunde1" by Furst ond Moukowtlcl (Albert Langen Vetlog, Munich) there is o
description of some e~perimerlls of interest in lhis connection. "Dos wlrbelnde Meelschweinchen' ' (swirling
n-dimensional formal, etc., etc. porpj><Je), p. 106, treats of the locolizahon of the sense of bolon,•; "Ein Schrill vom Wege" (o step
from 1he poth). p. 60, space 011entolion; " 8iene und Geometrie" (the bee ond geometryj, p. 83, also
deals with the loller. " Dos FormhOren" (hearing of form), p. 57, glvas o report on ponibiliti~ of
•See olso1 Dr. Rudolf Carnap, " Der Roum," Kol'lfstudien , Berlil'I, 1922 ond "Der logische Aufbau tier distinguishing forms ond space 1hro11gh hearing, os does olso the chapter "Augenersotz filr Blinde"
Welt," Weltkreisvulog, Berl in·Schlachlensee, 1928. (substitutes for eyes for the blind).

S7
56

35. 0. f1rlo, l928. Efevotor shoft.
yet imperfectly localized, so for as we know. The study of newer fields of conscious-
ness, such os telepolhy, moy render a service in this connection.
Man perceives space:
1. through the sense of sight in such things as sticks, rods, wiring; columns, bo~ies;
surfaces meet,,ng and culling one onother; interpenetrating ob1ects; wide perspectives;
relationships of moss, light shadow; transparency; reflection; mirroring (Figs. 36, 37,
40, 441
2 . through the sense of hearing by acoustical phenomena; reflected sound; echo.
3 . through the sense of equilibrium by circles, curves, windings (spiral stairways)
(Figs. 35, 39).
4. through the means of movement by different directions in space (horizontal,
vertical. d1ogonal); intersections; 1umps, etc.
The experience of architecture. The road toward experiencing orchitedure thus
proceeds through o functional capacity for grasping space. This is biologically deter-
mined. As in every other field, one has to accumulate much experience before o real
appreciation of the essential content, orticulated space, con be en1oyed. Unfortunately
this approach to architecture is rare. Most people still look for stylistic characteristics,
such as: Doric pillars, Corinthian capitols Romanesque arches, Gothic rose-windows, etc.
These ore, of course, certain types of spatio! construction, but they do not present
evidence about the quality of space creotion itself.
It is this traditional education which is responsible for the fact that the "educated''
man cannot really evaluate architectural work as an expression of space articu-
lation The actual felt quality of spatial creation, the equilibrium of tout forces held in
balance, the fluctuating interpenetrafion of space energies, escapes his perception
A symptom of our time is that this lock of discrimination is also common in architects,
who look for the essence of architecture in the meaning of the conception of shelter.
It happens that many "modernistic" architects toke from revolutionary architecture
only stylistic characteristics, as, for instance, o misunderstood ' cubist" exterior. Their
point of departure is the arrangement of o series of rooms, o kind of practical solution,
but never really architecture In the sense of articulated space relations, to be expe-
rienced os such. Every orchitedure - and all its functional ports, as well as its spatial
orticulotion - must be conceived as o whole. Without this, o bvilding becomes o
piecing together of hollow bodies, which may be technicolly feasible, but which can
never bring the exhilarating experience of articulated space.

36. Volume ond spoce relotionships. Practical application. If the elements necessary to a building fulfill their function
II the side wells of o volume ore SCOI· they become port of o space reality, transcended into a spatial experience. The space
tared 1n different diroct1on1, spotiol ••·
reality in such o case is nothing less than the mosl efficient co-operation between the
lotionsh ps oflginote.
organization o~ the plan and the human factor. Our present mode of Irving ploys o
The co11ception of the .. fo~ode.. it olreody el m.no•ed from orch\•eeure. The••
no plocc left '" the building which hos not been odoplttd to M>me lunct oaol un significant role, but it does not prescribe the manner of space creation. Only when
11
The explo1tot1on of 1he front lbolcon101, • ectricol od•ertu "11 signs) ts con11nued by the facilities For different functions - for traffic, moving about and visual factors,
tho1 of 1he roof (rool gardens, oirplone lending stot onsl. acoustics, light, and equilibrium - a re conceived in a constant balance of their
spatial relations, can we speak of architecture as a spatial creation.

Basic architectonic questions. In planning o building the most varied problems

37. l• Corbusier, 1925. Dwelling house.
~ "section of spoce' is cul out of ''cosmic.. spoce by o network of stnps, wire• ond
glou, just 01 1f spoce were o d1v111blo, compact ob1ect. The new orchitec!ure ia in
complete 1nterponetrot1on with outer spoce. .
The oaon liners built since the nine11es ore the precursorJ of modern orch1tecture.
The necessity of ot101nln11 maximum space content ond complete stobility with the
smollut powble welght forced the Jhipbuilding e'lg":noer to solu!iot>s si?n1lot 10 those
the rnodern ordlotect ach eves.
come up: social, economic, technological hygienic. It is probable that upon their correct
solution the fate of our generation and the next depends.•
But attending to social, economic, and hygienic problems does not absolve the archi·
led from the responsibility of further effort and thought. To be sure, o great step in
advance hos been token, if, along with the financial and technical considerations, the
problems of structure and social economy, technique and efficiency, are seriously
examined. But the real architectonic conception, beyond the fusion of all purposeful
functions, is usually not discussed, namely, space crealton, perhaps because its con-
tent is accessible to few people. Yet in addition lo the fulfillment of elementary physica l
requirements, man must hove the opportunity to experience space in architecture. For
example, a dwelling should not be o relreol from space, but o life in space. A dwell·
ing should be decided upon, not only on the basis of price and the time it takes to
•Adolf Behne selected os the motto of hos populor and humot1 book, Neuu Wolrntn - Neues 8oaen
(Verlog Huse & BocW, le pz'gJ, the grvesoaoe soy"ng ol Heinr;ch Zll e, "One con ~111 o h11mort 1>e:n9
with o dwetr09 juu os surely os ,.,.. ,;, O" owe,"

S8
build, not only upon practical considerotions of its suitobility for use, its moterial,
construction, and economy; the experience of space belongs to the list too, as a
psychological need.*
This idea is not to be token vaguely, or as a mystical approach to the subject. It
will not be long before ii is generally recognized as o necessary element in the archi-
tectonic conception, which will be exactly circumscribed. That is, architecture will be
understood, not os o complex of inner spaces, not merely as o shelter from the cold
ond from danger, nor as o fixed enclosure, as on unalterable arrangement of rooms,
but as on organic component in living, as o creation in the mastery of space
experience. Individuals who ore o port of o rol1onol b1olog1col whole should find in
their home not only reloxotion and recuperation, but also o heightening and harmo-
nious development of their powers.
The new architecture, on its highest plone, will be called upon to remove the con-
flict between the organic and ortificial, between the open and closed, between the
country ond city. We ore accustomed to neglect these questions because the emphasis
is still upon the house as a single unil. The future conception of architecture will
consider and realize, beyond the single unit, the group, the town, the region, and the
country; in short, the whole. The means lo this end may be of many kinds; some day
we will surely arrive al this elementary insistence on created space. The standard for
orchilects will then no longer be the specific needs of the dwelling of the individual,
or of o profession with a certain economic influence, but will revolve oround a general
pion, that of the mode of biological living which men must have. After this general
foundation is established, variations may be introduced, justified by individual needs.
People ore today conducting 1nvesligalions of biological requirements in different
fields of experience. Their research seems to produce results which ore related.
Efforts to realize o new spatial conception and creation - importonl os they ore -
should therefore be understood only as o component of this new orientotion.
Architecture will be brought to its fullest realization when the deepest knowledge
of human life as o total event in the biological whole is available One of its impor·
tont components is the ordering of man in space, making space comprehensible by
its articulation
The root of architecture lies in the mastery of the problem of space; its prodicol
development lies in technological advance.
The boundary between architecture and sculpture. Although architecture and
sculpture ore separate domains, the treatment of space al times easily may be con·
fused with treatment of volume. In other words: to the untrained eye, sculpture may
appear as architecture, and a work of architecture as enlarged sculpture (Fig. 38).
The loller wos almost always the case with classical architecture, where the modulation
of mosses and bodies (volumes) was predominant. But space creation in our time hos
changed the meaning of architecture A brief explanation may clarify this. If the side
walls of o volume (i.e., a clearly circumscribed body) ore scattered in different direc·
• A voluoble tf\eoreticol study, perhaps the most voluoble of re<enf yeors, 011 1he que11io11 or orc:hiteclure,
is the book by S. Giedion: "Bouen in Fronlreidl, Bouen in foenbeton, Bouen in f1Jen" IVerlog Klinkhordt
& 8iermonn, Leipzig). Giedion oltempa to show lhol i11 tlloder11 c:onstructio11 the corrKt opplicotion o!
tnolenols ond principles of economy 11 thot which produces the octuol orc:h11eclurol c:reohon. But he o!so
soys thot moteriol ond c:onstruc1>on ore only meons to the reohzohon or orch1lec:1uro!ly env•sioned ends..
His lotest book "Spoc:e. Time and Architecture" IHorvord University Press, 19AIJ is once more on
imporlont ond excellent contribution.
60
lions, spatial patterns or spatial relations originate. This fact is the best guide lo
judgment of modem and pseudo-modern architecture. The lotter shows only volume
articulation, in comparison with the rich space articulation - i.e., relations of planes
and slobs - of modem architecture (Fig. 36).
Thi E1fl1I Towtr •son the border line between orc:h•leclure and sculphsre. Accord-
ing to lhe del:n1l•Oll loid down 111 1h1s bool, 11 11 o piece of ic:ulpture: o volume
creot•on. It 1s o bro~en·•h1ou9h, c:omplerely perfo1oted ''block."
An analogy. The foci that kinehc sculpture exists leads to the recognition of a space
condition which is not the resull of the position of static volumes, but consists of visible
and invisible forces, e.g., of the phenomena of motion, and the forms that such motion
creoles !figs. 17, 29, 30-32, 39 and page 74).
The phrase "material is energy" will hove significance for architecture by empha·
sizing relation, instead of moss.
I
1
.,.
39. L. Moholy-Nogy. The conslrvct•on
set.em• of the kinetic conslruclive
system, 1922.
0.1 1t:uct1111 conto1n1 on outer po1h 11>0unl1ng 1p11olty, intended for generol
recreation or>d lllerefore equipped w"h o g11<1td-ro1I. Instead of steps, ii :s i11 11>.
!orm of o tOITlp The polh e"ch ot •he lop 111 o ie.mi-circulo1 platform which hos
occess 10 011 elevator shoft. The upper end of lhe plotlorm is 1ointed, while the
lower end emerges on o homon1ol wh1cl-t lol<es 1he public out by o downward e.ico-
lolor The horironlol r1ng-shoped plotform glides downward in 1e.spect lo the e(e .
vo1or ond by meoM of the lurning of lhe whole sllucture. The path of mollon fo1 11
11 the inner spiral. Porollel to the outer path !here is o further sp1rol, with the steepest
proclicablo 1ndlne, for lhe use of moro othlclic visitors. This. unlike the outer pa1h,
hos no roll.
Above the uppet plolform for the public lhere ;s o ho1iiontof plane forming three
C!UOrfel'J Of 0 ring, which IS lhe ICtmlRUI or lhe 10 0fhletes' !rock,'' and IS COnMC1ed
w••h o slido pole parallel lo the elevo1or sholt Tho slide pole, by means of o flexible
ollocilmenl, co11 be moved to ony po nl on the upper 11119·shoped sutfoQt, ond co11
olso be swung to any po1nl of the ground level of lhe whole slrucfure.
The figures 1nd1cole the Kole ond the arrows lhe d rec:l1on of motion.
Instead of static: kinetic. What we grasp of kinetics today is slight. The building
materials al our disposal permil extraordinary performances, but they scarcely come
near the "fantastic" idea of o kinetic space creation.
61
 Whal we hove conquered up lo now is in close contact with technological forms
appearing in other fields. The common denominator is the concept of the dynamic
(kinetic), in contrast to the static, hierarchic fixation of earlier periods.
formerly the architect constructed his buildings from visible, measurable, and well.
proportioned volumes, calling them "space creations.'' Bui real spatial experience rests
on simultaneous nterpenelrotion of inside and outside, obove and beneolh, on the
communication of the in and the out, on the often invisible play of forces present in the
materials and their relationships in space.
Space creation is nol primar"ly o question of the building material. Thus a present.
day space creation is not o compound of heavy building manes, nor the formation of
hollow bodies, nor the relative posillons of well-arranged volumes; nor on orrongemen:,
alongside of one another, of single cells of the some or of a different volume content.
Space creation is on interweoving of the parls of space, which ore anchored, for
the most port, in dearly traceable relations extending in all directions as a fluduoting
ploy of forces (Figs. 16, 33, 36).
This space is effected on lhe measurable plane by lhe limits of bodies, and on the
non·meosuroble plane by the dynamic fields of force. Space creation becomes the
nexus of spatial entities, not of building materials.
Building moteriol is an auxiliary; just so For con it be used as medium of spoce-
creoting relations. The principal means of creation is the space ilself, from whose
conditions the treatment must proceed.
The histo ri cal sequence. The historical sequence of the development of spatial treat-
ment can be indicated, just os in sculpture. It will merely be sketched here. The filling
.40. Fronk Lloyd Wright, Robie
in of details, the finding of appropriate examples, must be left to the reader. It will
Hou1e, Ch1ca90, 1906. A 111w spohol
opprocch through use of slobs. be sufficient to hold firmly in mind the idea that orchiteciurol development hos pro-
ceeded from volumes to open space relations:
One-celled; closed (hollow) bodies.
l1di exterior odd;fons
2. One-celled; one side open. moke thtie relations
3. Bore structure oppeors; stilts, columns. lo"gible; on spi1e of
4. Several cells, extending horizontally, later vertically; this the general imprH·
11on is o modelled
enclosed, comped blocks. body (sculpiureJ.
5. lnterpenetrating cells; arch, vault, cupola; verticality.
6. Every side perforated; fluctuating horizontally ) pion of creative expression in space. Since, in architecture not sculptural patterns, but
(Wright) (Fig. 40).
7. The some, opened in the vertical direction; the inter-
penetration takes place not only sidewise, bul also up Sculpture discorded in
and down, for example, o ship's bridge; th~ work of fovor or 0 new creot • •
spotiol approach.
Gropius, Corbusier, Oud, Mies van der Rohe, and the )
young orchiteds (Figs. 35, 37, 41).
8. The ground plan of the top 1s different from thol of the
bottom; space cells are suspended on the ceiling.
41. Woller G1opiU1, 1926. Tht Bouhous
ot Dnsou.
fenestrotoons produud the •nword ond outword relle<l.0111 of the windows. II is
no lor>9•• pots ble to '"P oporl the 1111 de orid outs' de. The moss of the woll, ot
which oll the "outside" previously tlopped, ts now d "ssolved om:! lets tt-e surrou"d·ngs
!low in!o the bu Id ng .
62
Spatial creation o o the sta ge and in motion p ictures. With the exception of
the dance, sports, and acrobatics, space creation as a form of human expression - like
pointing, sculpture, music, poetry - does not exist as o conscious departure. But such
a conception derived from on inner urge, is justifiable, and the circus, vaudeville,
theater and motion pictures, os well os occasional exposition buildings, afford suffi-
cient opportunity to realize such space creative activities outside of orchilecture
(Fig. 42). A serious consideration of these possibilities seems to be mportont, since
through them new avenues of release emerge. lhey also render aS!istonce to utilitorion
12. l . Moholy-Nogy, 1928. St09e HI architecture, that is, in the end, to the people, since in doily life everyone is engulfed
IToi., of Hoffmonn,'' Stolt ()pero ,
8e1l1n). by the architecture of utility.
Light creoles spot•.
While orhficool sources of l19h1 ore used 10 011 omoz1n9 extent on the motoon
piclurt studio ond oro the stoge, the pruenl ·doy orchitect, pointer or sculptor hos
ho1dly ony notioro of how to employ them. At the somo time it is obo true thoJ
the sloge, ond more tsptciolly the motion pic111re, ore still for from rotionol in their
procticol use of light . The splendidly equipped motion picture studios should not
pion their lighting ond their orchileclure on unintelligent principles of imitolfon of
noture, but should exploit the 1peclol po11iblllties of light, The introduction o f
moving light sources wa11ld of Itself create o revolution here.
The sloge set for "Hoffmonn" i1 an experiment wilh the problem of creoiing spoce
from light ond shodow. Among other devices, the wings ore employed here to
creole shadows. Everything is tronsportnt, ond olt the ltarosporenJ surfaces work
together to moke on organized ond well perceplible space orticulotion. II seems
thot from oll this study of moltriol, volume and spoce, the stoge will, fltst omong
all the fields ol exptess•an, goin the me»t in the very neor future. As soon os it leoves
tlut blond olley of lht puttly l1tcrory - the co·ordonot•on ol oll the elemenls will
1oke o dttis•'I step lorword.
This is the point of which one might insert the question o! the effect of spotiol values
on sensory reodions, or even tho! of space perception. But on exact statement oppeors
to be os little practicable today os a similar statement was for Goethe ond his followers
in the field of color. Language ts inadequate to formulate the exoct meaning and the
rich variations of the realm of sensory experiences. Still, o theoretical approach lo the
problem of on obstroct space creation need by no means be branded os sterile.
The b iological pure and simple take n as the guide. The most elementary sloge
of spatial creation is evidently its significance from the biological standpoint.
In practical evaluation, space does not hove to do with o "sculptural" exterior,
but instead with relations, which establish tho biological conditions necessary for o
spatial relations are the building elements, the inside of the building must be inter·
connected, ond then connected with the outside by spatial divisions.
The task is not completed with a single structure. The next stage will be space
creation in all directions, space creation in o continuum.
Boundaries become fluid, space is conceived as flowing - a countless succession
of relationships.
Aviotion hos o special port to ploy in this respect. New views appear below on
airplane, and also from looking upward at on airplane. The essential is the bird's-eye
view, which is o more complete space experience. It alters the previous conception
of architectural relations.
Something similar may be said of the new use of artificial and natural light. For
example: A white house with great gloss windows surrounded by trees becomes olmos1
 transparent when the sun shines. The white walls act as projection screens on which
shadows mufriply the trees, and the gloss plates become mirrors in which the trees ore
repealed. A perfect transparency is the result; the house becomes a port of nature.
The use of artificial light may still increase such effects. At night strong light destroys
details, devours trimmings, and shows - if used with this end in view - not the fo~ade,
but space relations.
Even the more limited spatial creation of industrial buildings and dwellings is making
similar advances (Fig. 43).
A path for future architecture is indicated by another point of departure: the inside
and outside, the upper and lower fuse into unity (Fig. 44).

43. Ford foctory ot Otlroil. Pholo

by Sheeler.

«. "Atchittdurt." Photo by Ail s;911el.

The 1lhrs;on of 1polro1 lnttrpenetrotion u lKVteO by superimposing two pholo-

Abstract of an Artist:*
grophic negotiYn. Tiit next gene101 on will perhaps really we buildings tih th s,
when glou one! comprt1l~ 011 arch I.Clure d.,.,elops

Openings and boundaries, perforations and moving surfaces, carry the periphery
to the center, and push the center outward. A constant fluctuation, sideways and
upward, radiating, oll·sided, announces that man hos token possession, so for as his
human capacities and conceptions allow, of imponderable, invisible, and yet omni-
present space.

• All lumot ons occompony;r>g this chapter art by the ovtbot.


l. Moholy-Nogy. Spoce modulator
with lvghltg~.h (PloJI c shopC'd b)' hone!,
1942),
The ordinary person is bewildered by contemporary ort. The leaching of o dis-
torted hislory of art, rooted in dogmatic def.n1t1ons of what ought to constitute art,
often prevents him from approaching new modes of expression. Anything which he finds
difficult to understand makes him impatient and angry, sometimes even hostile. But there
ore woys of meeting the situation. The observer's emotional ond intellectual interest con
be stimulated so that he approaches the subject with o more positive attitude. He con be
shown thot without special preparation only a minority can follow new trends -
mainly because the professional artist, through doily work with his material, acquires
a superior understanding of his means, and is led to newer and newer formulations that
supersede old standards. These findings ore the result of on organic process, o growth
in knowledge, experience, and intuition. This can hardly be matched by the layman. But
the new formal solutions can act os catalysts for the few who, because of an inclination
similar to that of the artist, read positively. Then, slowly and almost unnoticed, as if
by a process of osmosis, the work of the new artist diffuses and penetrates through
every phose of life. In from thirty to fifty yeors the process reaches a saturation point.
The new form of expression has become port of civilization and the cycle will be
renewed.
The process of diffusion may be occeleroted. lnrellectuol preparation and criticism
may undo dogmas. Though it is doubtful whether art con ever be fully "explained,"
it may be helpful lo the reader to retrace my own development, ond lo show how my
work in obstrocf art grew out of a gradual grasp of means and interrelations.
Seeming chaos. I did not begin as an abstract pointer. Intimidated by the apparent
chaos of contemporary painting, then represented by the fovves, cubists, expression-
ists, and futurists, I turned lo "solid" values, to the renaissance painters. I had no
difficulty in "understanding" them. Was I not prepared by novelists and biographers
lo appreciate their monumentality? Raphael's worldly madonnos, the heavenly smile
of the Gioconda and her fine hands, the weighty dignity of Michelangelo - these
were already interpreted by writers. We ordinarily like things which we understand,
and we usually look for those things which we know by heart. They afford on agree-
able reassurance, and confirm our education. It did not occur lo me tho! beyond the
illustration of a mythological and religious story, pictures must hove other quolities....My
eyes were not yet :rained to see. My approach was more that of "hearing" the pic-
ture's literary significance than of seeing form and visual elements. I was conscious
neither of these fundamentals nor of the technique of execution. I would not have
 been able to distinguish between originals, copies, or fakes. Then come my discovery
of Rembrandt, especially of his drawings. They seemed to be carried only by erno.
tionol force, radiating psychological depth and introverted suffering. Impressed by
the startling discoveries of psychoanalysis, I found in Rembrandt o foreshadowing of
o technique demonslrottng this kind of knowledge. In addition, not having much exs-.
rience in draftsmanship, but haunted by a desire for quick results, my own drowin;i;
seemed lo hove en affinity with Rembrandt's nervous sketches. The next step ~
Vincent van Gogh. Again, I was more attracted to his drawings than to hfs poin3·
The onolyticol nature of his ink drawings and their peculiar texture tough! me
line drawings ought not to be mixed with half tones; that one should try lo ex
three-dimensional plastic quality by the unadulterated means of line; that the qual
of a picture is not so much defined by the illusionistic rendering of nature as by ~
faithful use of the medium in new visual relations. (Since then I hove learned that ttW
artist may mix techniques; in fact, he con do whatever he pleases, providing he mosf9ft
1916. his means, and hos something to express.)

I
The young pointer posses beyond dilettantism, mere subconscious doodling
somnombulistic repetition of examples when he begins to discover problems for hi
self and then tries lo solve them. To consciously work out such "problems" does
RJROIE
constitute a danger, either of losing the potenllol1ty for future development, or e 8/WfHOf
tionol freshness. Anyway, the complexity of on expression 1s usually beyond cons · kUNST
grasp. The conscious port is a small component, which helps to synthesize the elem
oport from the oct of intuitive coordination.• Through my "problem" of expr
everything only with lines I underwent on exciting experience, especially as I a
emphasized the lines. In frying to express three-dimensionality, I used auxiliary Ii 1926. Arrongement for o 8ouhous festivol.
in places where ordinarily no lines are used. The result wos a complicated ne
of o peculiar spatial quality, applicable to new problems. For example, I could ex
with such a network the spherical roundness of the sky, like the inside of a boll. In
some woy, I could render o nude with all the complicated compound curvatures
the body which the traditionally subtly flowing shadows, translated into holf-t
hod hod to define as organic plastic form. Suddenly I sow that this experiment
lines brought on emotional quality into the drawings which wos entirely unintenti
1917. S.tf port101I ,
and unexpected, and of which I hod not been aware before. I tried to anal
bodies, faces, landscapes with my ''lines," but the results slipped out of my
went beyond the analytical intention. The drawings become a rhythmically orticul
network of lines, showing not so much obiects as my excitement about them.
This ogoin cut o path into the jungle. I learned that the manner in which lines
related, not objects as such, carry the richer message. Von Gogh appeared in
new light. I grasped much better the "meaning" of his curves ond shapes. Thal I
o minor, but entirely personal problem in my work, taught me to recognize and e
to look for other pointers' problems. Edvard Munch, the Norwegian pointer,
Tihonyi, a Hungarian, Oscar Kokoschko, Egon Schiele, Franz More - oil these opp
1917. Londscope. decipherable to me - or at least so I thought. I was very much affected by the
covery that, for them, nature was only a point of departure, and that the real im
• The intu t ve is moSI occ~rotely unders•ood os o speeded-up, wbconscious logic, potoflel lo
tbought In oil sove its greater dehcocy and flu'd1ty, Usvolly tfle dMper meanings '° often owibed
ll>e intuitive more properly belong to nnsory oppreht-ouion. Here resides the lneffoble. Tius kiixl
el(f>er once is fundomentolly non•vtrbol but 11 is nol inorticulole lo tl>e visuol ond other sensas. lntul
in the v1t1bol 1mivorse '' olwoys potent olly exp! cable. l11tu!tAie in th plastic tense, in oll lhe
1ndud1n9 ~·ry. 11 o motter never, probably, copoble of conJCious vetbol :otion.

61 69
 lance had been shifted lo their interpretive power. I now understood why they useci
unusual combinations of curved, straight and zigzagging lines This was port of their
language, based upon visual fundamentals This was their way of speaking about
their problems their social consciousness, their individual happinesses and fears. Lines
become diagrams of inner forces. With ecstasy I mode o drawing; there were no
objects, only lines, stroighs and curved. Wheels and bridges scattered on lhe sheet
were the only shapes derived from nature. I called the drawing "'Build! Build!"'
!"£pits" is the Hungarian word for ii.) This was in 1917.1919.
From that time on I observed that lines could hove a power beyond me, ond that,
if I wished to control them, I hod lo be careful not to use them lo excess. This helped
me to simplify my work The fewer the lines, the less the opportunity for confusion.
Now sensing a hidden low in their rich use of lines, I dared lo examine cubist
pictures. I also tried to become better acquainted with the futurists and expressionists.

1919.
Organization of the p icture plane. Today I realize that al the time I was able
lo see m their work no more than the elements whtch I hod already employed myself.
But this was a most productive time of fermentation, a process of maturing. I become
more courageous in listening to my own observations. I discovered that "composition"
1s directed by on unconscious sense of order in regard to the relations of color, shape,
1936. Window disploy. position, etc., and often by o geometrical correspondence of elements. For example,
some time ago, when pointing a still life, I placed the objects on the ground, diredly
beneath the canvas. I thought I would be able to show them better in this position,
to see more from above. Al the some time I wanted lo frome these ob1ects with the
two d1ogonol legs of the field easel. Thus I pointed them lo form o kind of o triangle.
After finishing the picture, I observed that this triangle not only created o greater
depth and dominated the composition, being o frame within a frame, but influented
my color scheme and 1he position of the colors, too. All the yellows, blues, and reds
had been instinctively organized within small triangles. This helped me see the · com-
position" of old and contemporary pictures with new eyes.
Bored by the old subjed-motter, I looked for new subjects and themes. Gloss and
crystal, salt shaker, T-squore, radiator, alcohol burner, semaphore, or iron construction
appeared in my paintings - instead of apples, lobsters, and pears.
One day I found that my sketch for on oil pointing did not carry out my intention.
There were too many shapes pressed into a chaotic arrangement. I took scissors. Cut-
ting owoy some ports of the drawing, and turning it ot on angle of ninety degrees,
I was satisfied. When the remnants were posted on o new sheet, the whole hod little
similarity lo the still life which I hod chosen os the point of departure. People, accus-
tomed to naturalistic schemes, insisted that this "still life," mutilated and turned upside
down, looked like a rider an a motorcycle. I protested, but basically I hod a feeling
of indescribable happiness, o feeling of the complete autonomy of action. II occurred
to me that, if I could make such changes in a drawing, I could also decide with the some
1920. Still LI•.
freedom the shapes and colors in my oil paintings. Suddenly I understood the blue
faces and blue horses of the expressionists. How wonderfully simple! With this
revelation I deliberately changed the color schemes of my "still fifes," and even went
one step further. I el1m noted the perspective employed in my former paintings. I
simplified everything lo geometrical shapes, Aot unbroken colors, lemon yellow, ver·
milion, black, wh le - polar consrosts.
This event mor!(ed a turning point in my existence os a pointer. Thal day I sensed
 more cleorly than I con tell that I was on the way to solve the problem of pointing
with my own means. But what is o problem¥ Young ~tudents often believe that the
artist's problem is something scholarly and enigmatic, beyond simple feeling a nd
thinking. In reality o problem, seen from the point of view of the worker, con be
anything, from corefu observotion of an event, or of its smallest detail, to the deepest
intellectual penetration of any subject. The task is to translate the "problem" into a
"form" which can be comprehended ond absorbed by the spectator. In those days
color become my "problem." Color, which I hod so for considered mainly for its
illustrative possibilities, was transformed into o force loaded with potential space
articulation and full of emotional qualities. I started out to clarify how Oifferent
colors behove when organized in relation with eoch other. I mode dozens of co/foges
with colored paper strips. Spending o holiday in the country, where from the hilltops
I could see hundreds of small strips of land, I pointed pictures with colored stripes in
juxtoposition and called them 'acres.'' I could hove called them color compositions,
1920.
but ii was difficult to cut loose from the dogma lhol a pointer is a painter only when
he renders or interprets nature and that otherwise his paintings may be contemptuously
labeled "decoration.'' Such conventions were all pervasive. Not recorded in books, they
existed as on unwritten low by common agreement of professionals. II was forbidden,
for example, to use block. "Clear block," ti wos so1d, "does not exist in nature. It
hos to be produced from red, green ond blue.' (Of course, this did not produce block
ot all, bul only o kind of dirty mess.) "One should never use a compass or a ruler. If
one makes a circle, ti should be mode frce·hond, but it must look os though it hod
been mode by o compass.'' I struggled hard against these arguments. One risked
excommunication.
Influence of machine technology. In 1919, I lived in Vienna, lost among the
depressed confomnsts ot the postwar period. Coming from a form in the agricultural
1920. Collage.
center of Hungary, I was less intrigued with the baroque pompousncu of the Austrian
capitol than with the highly developed technology of industrial Germany. I went lo
Berlin. Many of my poinhngs of that period show the influence of the industrial "land-
scape" of Berlin. They were not projections of reality rendered with photographic eyes,
but rather new structures, built up os my own version of machine technology, reossem·
bled from the dismantled ports. Soon these dismantled ports appeared in my montage
pictures. On my walks I found scrap machine ports, screws, bolts, mechanical devices
I fostencd, glued and nailed them on wooden boards, combined with drawings and
pain ling.• It seemed to me that in this way I could produce real spatial articulation,
fronlolly and in profile, os well as more intense color effects. Lighl foiling on lhe actual
objects in the constructions mode the colors appear more alive than any pointed com-
bination. I planned three-dimensiona l assemblages, constructions, executed in gl a~
1936. Book jack~!.
and metal. Flooded with light, I thought they would bring to the fore the most powerful
color harmonies. In trying to sketch this type of "gloss architecture," I hit upon the idea
of transparency. This problem hos occupied me for n long time.

• U det IM ~!lue~ce ol cui> s• col oges, Schw lier ' Merr po nl g and dodo sm t bta:en courage
11011cd out w I m7 photomo~loges loo Th 1 led me the IOtne fXI od to 1he red s'overy ol tne le~'"·
1922. Photogrom - montoge n quc of lhe phologrom (cu11>ercleu phologrophyl
n 73
 The capactlles of one man seldom allow the handling of more than one problem
area. I suspect this is why my work since those days hos been only a porophrose of
the original problem, light I become interested in painting-with-light, not on the sur·
face of canvas, but directly in space. Pointing transparencies was the start. I pointed
os if colored light wos pro1ected on a screen, and other colored lights superimposed
over 11. I thought this effect could be enhanced by placing translucent screens of
different shapes, one behind the other, and projecting the colored lights over each
unit. Although at the lime I wos without the necessary skill and means, this idea was
responsible, with some changes, for my later experiments wrth stage sets and with
molded transparent plost1cs.
My "transparent pictures around 1921 became completely freed of elements remi-
niscent of nature. The liberation from the necessity to record was their genesis. I wanted
to eliminate all factors which might disturb their clarity - in contrast, for example, with
Kondrnsky's paintings, which reminded me Sometimes of an undersea world My desire
1920. Gloss orch11ectu•e. was lo work with the peculiar charode1istics of colors, with their pure relationships
I chose simple geometrical forms as a step towards such objectivity. I see today that
this step was the logical continuation of the cubist paintings that I hod admiringly
studied After my earlier experiments with black and white and colored strips, with
related small and large areas of different colors, I found that the cubists, in their col-
lages, had already touched upon such schemes. To me it was disturbing that the cubists
had named such pictures ''Still Life with Mandolin", "Head", or "Nude". Now I realize
that their clinging lo subject-molter wos inevitable. First, because of the convention that
every pointing must be rooted in nature. Second, because new developments for them
took place only step by step as a re~ult of the disintegration of the original stimulus.
Tearing apart the old visual conception, the cubist painters originated a new means of
rendering, as well as a space orticulotion. The cubists hoped to develop o method to
penetrate reality more thoroughly than hod been possible with perspective-illusion.
They had an intimation of the coming forceful visual monopoly of the movies, and
1921. TronJporcnq. tried lo escape from it by all means. The principle of the motion picture was a new
method of rendering three-dimensional reality. The film was able to show any object in
space from many different sides in quick succession. The cubists began to produce such
1936. Speclol effects for rhe motion picture "Thing• lo Come:' o rendering by "looking around the corner," ond looking from above, from every side -
invalidating the monocular vision of previous painters.
In the first place, the spectators surprise came, to a great extent, from distortions
of recognizable objects and from the wit with which these deviations from the habitual
rendering of nature were used for a binocular characterization of the object. Besides
the emotional upheaval caused by the startling extension of lhe traditional pictorial
1921-22. elements into a new vision, the distortions and strange transformations of well-known
subject matter produced, in addition, on attack on all pictorial fixations originating in
the renaissance. The analysis of the binocular vision in motion led the cubists to render
objects with o multitude of details seen from every point of view. For this they employed
a method of dissolving the whole shape into small geometric units, and sow to it that
the multitude of elements did not destroy the original subject as an entity. To do this
clearly, the cubists devised a method ol hovrng small shapes cost shadows within the
large area of the original shape. A little pointing of ploying-cards by Braque in 1910
shows this method -which Cezanne had already employed in some of his watercolors.
When ploying-cards ore lying flat, they do not cost shadows, but the more the cords
are lifted, the more shadow they cast.
75
71.
 This phenomenon hos been utilized in the third phase of cubism: all objects seemed
to be flattened out; that is, they were simplified to their plane, elevation ond seclion,
In order to 1ee them from oil sides, as if one were to move around them, all these vie">I ;
were superimposed. But such superimpositions were rather difficult to disen-
tangle. To differentiate between the mulhlude ol the smaller $hopes, which originated
by crossing or overlapping each other, the cubists shaded crthcr the edges or !he corners
of the small shapes while keeping 1he identity of the general theme. This departure
was soon transformed into o genuine form of picture construction. There the fine shad-
ings, similar to photographic halftones, light ond dork planes, produced a new rhythm
which stole the show From the original analytical intention of o better rendering of nature
by o vision in motion. These paintings, especially lhc collages, created new rhythmic
references between geometric ond free shapes which were divorced almost entirely
from their naturalistic origins and previous connotations, i.e., being ports of lhe object.
This phose of the cubists· efforts, I believe, was the unconscious impetus For my own
collage experiments.

The fu nction of the artist. Art is the senses' grindstone, sharpening the eyes, the mind
ond the feelings. Art hos on educational ond formative idoologicol function, since
not only the conscious but also the subconscious mind absorbs the social atmosphere
which con be translated into orl. The ortist interprets ideas ond concepts through his
own med10 Despite the indirectness of his statement, his work expresses allegiance to
the lew or many, lo arrogance or humility, to the fixed or visionary. In this sense, he must
toke sides, must proclaim his stand and no true ortist con escape this task. Otherwise
his work would be no more than on exercise in skill. Who! orl contains is not bosico lly
different from the content of our other utterances but ort attains its effect ma inly by
subconscious organizohon of ils own means. If that were not $0, all problems could be
solved successFully through 'ntellectuol or verbal discourse olone.
The so·colled 'unpolitical" approach to art 1s o fallacy. Politics is token here, nc
in ih party connotation, bur as o woy of realizing ideas for the benefit of the com-
munity. Such o Wellanschouung is transformed, in the arts, into on organized, felt
Form by the concrete means of the d;fferent modes of expression. This content con be
generally grasped directly lhrough the senses, on o subhmrnol level, without o conscious
thinking process. Art moy press for o socio·biolog1col solution of problems just os ener-
getically os social revoluhonories may press for political oclion. The difficulty is that
few people ore sensitive ond, a t the so!T'e time, educoted enough lo receive the real
message of art, whether conter-porory or old As o young pointer I often hod the
feeling, when posting my collages ond pointing my "abstract·• pictures, that I wos
throwing o message, sea led in o bottle, into the seo It might toke decodes for someone
to flnd end read it. I believed that abstract ort not only registers conlemporory prob-
lems, but projects o desirable future order, unhampered by ony secondary meaning
which the customa ry depa rture from nature usually involves because of ils inevitobltt
connoto(ons. Abstract ort, I thought, creoles new types of spatial relationships, new
inventions of forms, new visual lows - basic ond simple - as the visual counterpart
lo a more purposeful, cooperative humcn socirty

l9-40. f'lealgloa sc11tph1r• O bjedive standa rd s. My intention was nol lo demonstrate only individual inventions,
1r1011nted on chromh1111 plota but rather the standards of o new vision employing "neutral" geometric forms. The
Sff opposite poge),
Pho10 by J A Mltb W Kec'lt should help, I thought lo emphasize the substance of relations, without being blurred

76
 by other elements. This wos emphasized even more by my smooth, impersonal handling
of pigment, renouncing oil texture variations.•
This involved ascetic restraint, voluntary sacrifice of odvontoges which hod become
the privilege of every pointer ofter impressionism, ond, even more, ofter cubism. Rich
variety of texture gave those pictures o quality of peinlure which was highly valued
by the connoisseur. Texlures hod o double funclion. They began the revolution which
brought about the change from traditional illusionistic rendering to "pointing.'' The
new pointing did not imitate nature, but translated its manifold appearances info
direct visual experience. The primary intention was lo produce the visual fundamentals
of picture making. Visual, not literary, relationships were created within the picture.
They were o testimonial to the imagination of the pointer. After a period of wavering
(since I loved the qualities of texture), I come lo feel that textures personify individual
values, and sometimes a hypertrophic ego; that the original need of translating nature
into "texture-formed" paintings did not exist ofter the abstract pointers found o more
direct and elementary way of picture-making. I gave up the use of textures.
This is the place where I may stole paradoxically that, in contemporary art, often
the most valuable part is not lhol which presents something new, but that which is
missing. In other words, the spectator's delight may be derived portly from the artist's
effort to eliminate the obsolete solutions of his predecessors. My desire was to go
beyond vanity into the realm of objective validity, serving the public as an anonymous
agent. An airbrush and spray gun, for example, con produce o smooth and impersonal
surface treofment which is beyond the skill of the hand. I was not afraid to employ
such tools in order to achieve machine-like perfection I was not ot all afraid of losing
the "personal touch," so highly valued in previous pointing. On the contrary, I even
gave up signing my paintings. I put numbers and letters with the necessary data on
the bock of the convos, as if they were cars, airplanes, or other industrial products.
I could not find any argument against the wide distribution of works of art, even if
turned out by moss production. The collector's naive desire for the unique can hardly
be justified. It hampers the cultural potential of moss consumption. In the visual arts, we
1941. Chitogo Spoce 7, oil on convos. already hove moss-produced engravings, wood-cuts, etc. My photographic experi-
ments, especially phatogroms, helped lo convince me that even the complete mechani-
zation of technics may not constitute a menace lo its essential creativeness. Compared
to the process of creation, problems of execution ore important only so for as the
technique adopted - whether manual or mechanical - must be mastered. Camero
work, photography, motion pictures, and other projective techniques clearly show this.
It may happen that one day easel pointing will hove to capitulate to this radically
mechanized visual expression. Manual painting may preserve its historical significance;
sooner or later it will lose its exclusiveness. In an industrial age, the distinction between
art and non-art, between manual craftsmanship and mechanical technology is no longer
an absolute one. Neither pointing nor photography, the motion pictures nor light-
disploy can be any longer jealously separated from each other. In 1922 I ordered by
telephone from a sign factory five paintings in porcelain enamel. I had the factory's
color chart before me and I sketched my paintings on graph paper. At the other end
of the telephone the factory supervisor hod the some kind of paper, divided into
squares. He took down the dictated shapes in the correct posillon. (It was like ploying
1922 Enamel. chess by correspondence.) One of the pictures was delivered in three different sizes,

• In 1he old Bouhous we coiled this .. foclure;· or "iurlace lreolmenl.''

13 79
 so that I could study the subtle differences 1n the color relations caused by the enlarge-
ment ond reduction. True, these pictures did not hove the virtue of the "individual
touch," but my action wos directed exactly against this over-emphasis. I often heor
the criticism that, because of this wont of the individual touch, my pictures are "intellec-
tual." This is meant as o derogatory term, referring to o lock o! emotional quality.
But my belief is that mathematically harmonious shapes, executed precisely, ore filied
with emotional quality, and that they repre$.Cnt the perfect balance between feeling
and intellect.

Colleagues. In 1922 the Russian artists, El Lissitzky, llyo Ehrenburg ond later Gabo,
come lo Berlin. They brought news of Molevich, Rodchenko ond the movement called
supremotism. The Dutch pointer, Theo von Doesburg, told about Mondrian and neo-
plosticism; Matthew Josephson and Harold Loeb, the editors of "Broom," and the
pointer Lozovick, about the U.S.A. Then Archipenko, the sculptor, and Tristan Tzaro
and Hons Arp, both dadaists, visited us. Joseph Pet~rs ond Vantongerloo come from
Belgium, and the architects Knud Lonberg Holm from Denmark, J. J. Oud and C. van
Eesleren from Holland, Frederick Kiesler from Vienna, and Wolter Gropius from
Weimar. Berlin was for o while the hub of tho artistic efforts of Europe. Der Sturm of
Herworth Wolden exhibited the pioneers of cubism, futurism, and abstract art and
printed the work of the new poets. Already in Berlin were George Grosz, Kurt
Schwitters and Raoul Hausmann, the Germon dadaists, the latter with tendencies to
constructivism; also the revolutionary Alm producer, Viking Eggeling, worked there with
his colloborotor, Hons Richter. We often met to discuss painting and other problems.
Out of these discussions developed the Constructivist Congress of 1922 in Weimar,
monifesloes in the Hungarian review MA, of which I was then the Berlin representa- 1942. Apparel shop. Photo by Hedrich·lleuing

tive, ond exhibitions, all of which gave us greater assurance in regard lo our work
and future ortist1c prospects.

(See poge « N1C~el sculpture, 1921,) Sculptures and mobiles. Meanwhile I mode sculptures from wood, gloss, nicket-
ploted metal ond other materials. I storied also to work on o light display IT'ochine,
a space kaleidoscope which occupied me for many yea~. It was o mobile structure
driven by on electric motor. In this experiment I tried to synthesize simple elements by
a constant superimposition of their movements. For this reoson most of the moving
shapes were mode transparent, through the use of plastics, gloss, wire-mesh, lattice-
work ond perforated metal sheets. By coordination of such elements of motion I
obtained results that were visually ricn. For almost ten years I planned and bottled
for the realization of this mobile, and I thought that I hod familiarized myself with all
its possibilities. "I knew by heart" what all the effects would be. But when the "light·
prop" was set in motion for the first time in o small mechanics shop in 1930, I felt like
the sorcerer's apprentice. The mobile was so startling in its coordinated motions and
space articulations of light and shadow sequences thot I almost believed in magic.
I learned much from this mobile for my later pointing, photography, and motion pic-
tures, as well as for architecture and industrial design. The mobile was designed mainly
to see transparencies in action, but I wos surprised to discover thal shadows thrown
on transparent and perforated screens produced new visual effects, a kind of inter-
penetration in fluid change. Also unexpected were the mirrorings of the moving plastic
shapes on the highly polished nickel and chromium-plated surfaces. These surfaces,
although opaque in reality, looked like transparent sheets when moving. In addition,
194'4 Eithlbllio" stand (in collobofctoon w th Rolph RcplOn - He neAI page). Photo by Hedri<n-Sleuing
1922-30. ''lighli>fOP." some tronsporent wire-mesh flogs, having been placed between differently shaped
81
80
 ground and ceiling planes, demonstrated powerful, irregular motion illusions.
Since I gave much time to this work, I found it somewhol depressmg that, for most
people, the beauty of such o mobile ond its emotional penetration had no: been
revealed. Almost no one could grasp the technical wit or the future promise of the
experiment. I hod more luck with o motion picture, "light display - block and white
and gray," which I mode from the mobile in 1930. There I tried ta translate i:s action
into photographic 'light" values.

Synthetic materials. Simultaneously with the sculptures made from metal and gloss,
I turned toward the new industrial materials. I began lo paint on aluminum, highly
polished non-ferrous alloys, and on thermosetting and thermoplastics. If I had not
1925. Alvminum, lproyecl been ofrord that these latter materials were not permanent, I would never hove pointed
on canvas ogorn.
In working with these materials - uniformly colored, opaque or transparent plastics
- I mode discoveries which were instrumental in changing my painting technique.
This hod inevitable repercussions on my thinking concerning light problems. To produce
lrue, primary relationships, my former idea of on "objective" pointing, was not the only
reason for my use of smooth flat surfaces. It was olso nearest to the transition of light
into color and color into light, something like on objective texture invention for o delicate
and evasive medium. By producing real radiant light effects through transparent dyes
on plastic ond through other means, one hos no need for tronsloting light into color
by pointing with pigment.
light pointing hod arrived and with it, the problem of texture reasserted itself,
1935. Cork
Painting with light. There hos been in the post a period of light pointing, that of
,, stained-gloss windows. There, direct and reflected light and the shadow of the framing
combined with projeded colored light into o foscinoting visual unity. Our technology
offers new possibilities, no Jess impressive, and without imitating the old techniques.
At present lhe central problem of pointing on transparent sheets is the reality of direct
light effects. In my first experiments I learned that I must hove o screen upon which
the light effects of the pointing could be projected. So I mounted the painted sheet
several inches in front of plain white or light groy backgrounds. There I observed thot
solid shapes on transparent sheets cost solid shadows. To dissolve and articulate the
1935. Zellon. heavy shadows one has to employ various means. There is o possibility of scratching
the surface with fine lines of different density which throw shadows of varied gray
values on the screen, similar lo the fine gradations of grays in the photogrom. To
point stripes similar lo grill- or lottice~work, or lo perforate solid surfaces, is another
possibility. Such elements, if lighted, cast alternating shadow and light patterns on the
background behind the pointed surface. Upon those patterns the original pointing is
superimposed. If lighted from the side, the shapes of the original and its shadows
appear shifted, creating o new relationship between the colors and their gray shadows.
This intensifles considerably the effect of the usual shadowless paintings. It produces
automatically o "light texture, especially if transparent dyes ore used instead of
pigments. The results, although very pleasing, bring some danger with them. The
smooth perfection of the plosttes, their light·llooded, sparkling planes, could easily
lure one into on effective but decorative performance. I attempted to ovoid this, espe-
cially when remembering my louvre and Vatican visits, where I observed the "master-
pieces" of late Romon sculptors who tried to outdo eoch other by using expensive
1938. £hoclo d. polished marbles, colored bronzes, precious stones, ebony and gold.
83
 Though plastics ore new moteriols, not thoroughly tested, I hod the feeling that one
hos to work with them, in spite or the danger of pretty effects. II moy toke decodes
until we will really know the material, and b fore we con develop a genuine technique
to hondle lhem. Even technical problems of pointing on these new materials ore yet
unsolved. After doubtful experiments with industrial lacquers, which were not fost, I
lried to paint with oil pigments on tronsporent sheets. In order lo avoid the danger
of the colors peeling off, I scratched hundreds and thousands of very fine lines into
the plaslic to be painted, hoping they would hold the pigment. I covered these engraved
lines with oil paint which was held in and between the little crevices. I often painted
on the front and back of the sheets too, so that my attempts to creole space articulation
by the relationships of reced"ng ond odvor-• ng colors were enhanced by the thickness
of the sheet; that is, the real d1stonce between the colors applied in front and in back.
In addition I achieved d1ffertintia1tons in the oppeoronce of the some color showing
.. •
through or seen on the polished surfaces. The new material olso needed o specific
1
brush technique which led to rother unexpected textures. Loter, instead of covering
1938 lthodo d
and filling the fine engraved lines with a homogeneous color loyer, I sometimes only
rubbed color into them. By certain combinations ot colored hair lines and their fine
shadows, intensified, vibrating color effects oppeored, on iridescence which I hod ad-
mired so much in th n gloss vessels buried thousands of yeors. Translated into oil pig-
ment, Renoir wos a great master of such effects. l felt hoppy to achieve o similar
refinement in the handling of colors by simpler means. These new effects with their
emotional content and spiriluol ospirolions con only be grasped, however, ofter their
"novelty" ospect hos been overcome by serious consideration or the problem involved.
The work is still incipient and the possible combinations and discoveries, as for
instance, the use or flows and bubbles in the plastics, may lead to even more startling
results. They moy lead to kinetic ltght displays.
I often thought that my early tronsporent paintings were static phases of such light
displays. In order to emphasize the ltinelic noture or those paintings, I often repeated
their central motives somewhat smaller or distorted within the some picture area. It
seemed to me thal with such repelillon I achieved o new dynamic form of harmonious {above) 19"6 leulc I, convos. (below 19-46 Dual form, ptexiglo• ond chromium sculpture.
organization, not unlike the c:lossicol composition types which I hod studied with great
eagerness. In the post, symmetry, the gold~n section, ond the hexagram were employed
and constructed mechanically by pointers. I seemed to achieve a more delicate and
scns1trve solution or harmony and r"lationships by my otlr.mpts ot repetition of the
elements, and by changing the sizes of the units. I loter observed that by placing the
shopes ·ntuitively throughout ihe picture oreo, I produced frequent correspondence of
1939. points. I connected these points with straight lines. They oppcored not only mathe·
motically bolanc:ed, but also created o spatial netwo1 k, an unusual diogrom of tensions.
These d1ograms acted also os symbols of motion. This become less obvious but more
evident by pointing on transparent plostic:s. On such paintings by using sunlight or o
spotlight, I could produce a second picture either behind the original, in the form of
porallel ond slightly disiorted shadows, or in the form of reflections on thr opposite wall.
If the picture was hung in a corner ond lighted from the side somewhat, this reflection
became very intense, producing a strongly distorted image. Such on imoge was exciting
because it hod a natural relationship with the original pointing that could not be missed
by anyone, and the repetition appeared not as a boring mechanical mirroring, but as o
negative image. t could obtain distorted images in other woys too. For instance, I moved
I 937 Po n• "ti .-.1 sp rot binding the sheet into a slanting position against the background. I could then change the
8-4

85
c;.._____.
All the 1hope1 which I used 1n
ri.e lost rwenty.fi•• }'ears wrpmed a>•
one doy os b11ng vor iotooM of o ribbon
(strip).
I
19'3. Hond-Jhoped plexiglos. (See
i1111slrotion, po91 66.]
19.CO. Tronsporency plusl
shadow image at will and could move it sideways, up or down, depending upon the
ongle of the sheet and the movemenls of the light source I could bend the plastics
either convexly or concavely, then fasten them to the background. The shadow of such
sheets produced a distorted image of the original painting Similar effecls were achieved
when the observer moved in front of the pointing. Also, I mode paintings on celluloid
sheets with a spiral binding. In these simple ways new types of moving pictures origi-
nated with ever changing shadows and reflections. My stage design, three-dimensional
"lantern slides," and motion picture work grew out of the ~ome interest, to "point
with light." I hove had enough opportunity to make abstract motion pictures, block
and white and in color, before that time and afterward, but I om convinced that
without employing the new painters' experiments with light and color no adequate
solution can be reached. In analyzing distortion, 1n these days I find that during lhe
losl twenty-five years, since I began my abstract painlings, I did not point any shape
which was not the interpretation of the original departure, the strip, used rn my first
collages. By slight distortion, although I hod not been conscious of ii, I continuously
changed this shape on each occos'on believing that I was inventing something com-
pletely new.
Molding the plastics. The lost step was the distortion of the Aot plane itself. Thermo-
plastics, when heated, can be easily shaped. One day it occurred to me that by painting
on flat plastic sheets, I neglected this essential property of the material. Thus I heated,
bent, and twisted o transparent sheet after pointing on it. With this manipulation I
arrived al complex concave and convex shapes, rich compound curvatures which
created a conslanll~ changing relationship between the painted and engraved trans-
parent planes and the background, resulting in a new type of "related" distortions.
The bends and curves mode the plastics structurally more resistant lo breakage. Al the
some time, the bends caught high lights. They could be made a port of the light
compositions themselves. These could hardly be called pointing or sculpture. However,
the difficulty of naming these forms should not be held against them. During the fast
lwenty-flve years I hove been often fascinated by phenomena not listed anywhere.
Thus I did not worry very much about o name for this unknown version of o kind of
sculptur~pointing. For me they were "space modulators." The distorted shapes of my
modulators produced spatial effects, not only through the curved surfaces which
were either protruding or receding, but also through the lines flowing in all directions
of the weather cock, formed by the thickness of the sheets themselves. Their edges
produced space curves which, when combined with similarly curved wire of the some
gouge os the thickness of the edges, could be blended into o complete row of space
cells. They were portly made of transparent plastics, with emphasis on the edges,
partly of wtte and air "walls," which were "more transparent" than transparency
itself. These experiments can be seen as related lo the spatial quality of endlessly bent
tubular furniture. I liked these tubular structures and I hod many ideas for their use in
other structural and orch1tecturol experiments. I tried lo achieve similar effects with
pointing on canvas. There the free motion" forward and backward of color prepared
o new type of spatial perception. This was in clear opposition to the renaissance
method of producing illus1onis1Jc space by the illus1on1s1tc relationships of volumes In
this way my experiments seemed to become a port of the general tendencies of con-
temporary pointers. Many of us hove deported from the old canons and obsolete 1946. Wire sailplura.
conventions, lo a new space articulation. trying to define intu11tvely and lo satisfy
more adequately the specific need of our hme for a vision in motion. Chicago. 19U.
86 87
O bituary note by Walter Gropius
With Moholy-Nogy s untimely death o life of tremendous vitality, will power ond love
hos been cut short at its zenith. When o beloved friend irrevocably disappears into
silence, the sudden loss enlightens our consciousness in o flosh so that we recognize
the truth more dearly than before.
Moholy-Nogy hos bequeathed to us o wealth of ort works and writings, which
embrace the whole ronge of the visual orts. We might coll the scope of his contribution
"Leonordion, so versatile ond colorful hos it been. He wos successful al once as a
thinker ond as on inventor, os o writer and os o teacher. This would seem to be almost
loo vast o field for one mon to till, but abundant versatility wos uniquely his. With his
power of imagination he kept this tremendous variety of interests in balance. His vision
look brillionl shortcuts, synchronizing his observations into a consistent whole, for he felt
todays danger of over-specialization which leads to fallacies.
Constantly developing new ideas, he monoged lo keep himself in o stole of unbiased
curiosity, from which o fresh point of view could originate. With a shrewd sense of
observation he investigated everything thot came his woy, toking nothing for granted,
but using his acute sense for the organic.
I remember his peculiar freshness when he was facing o new problem in his art.
With the attitude of on unpre1udiced, happy child ot play, he surprised one by the
directness of his intuitive approach. Herc was the source of his priceless quality as an
educator: his never-ceasing power lo stimulate ond to corry awoy the other person
with his own enthusiasm. Con true education achieve more than setting the student's
mind in motion by that contagious mogid
This book, which has proved to be "the standard grammar of modem design," gives
broadest evidence of the decisive part which Maholy.Nogy hos ployed in the history of
the visual arts, for it has revealed a new mental attitude in contemplating, observing
and forming this, our physical world It will go in in time when weaker eyes hove learned
to see through his.

89
 Index : Figures denote pages. Figures with asterisks denote illustrations. Gauguin, P. 38 M MASO
Geometry 3.i, 37, 46, 52. 53 , 55. 76 M<1chine production 10, 3 I, 79
Giedion, S. 60 Magritte, R 40
G1ed1on-Welcker, C. 41 M.llev1ch, K 39, 52, SO
Gioconda 67 Marc, F. 68
Glass architecture 72, 76° Mar1nett1, F. T. 2-l
A Al»tract movie 8. 86 Construction 31 Gle1zes, A. 3-- M<1rw1tz, R 23 °
Abstract painting 38, 76, 86 CO"lstruc11v1$ITI 32, 3S 39, -t5, 49, 53, Goethe, J . w 53 63 Mllrx, G. 27°
Acoustics 59 80 Golden section 46. 53, 55, S4 Mass 48, 49, 61, 6-Z
Adler, D. 20 Contrast 71 Greece 46 Mauing 25, 26•
Advertising 40 Conve>e 86 Greene, W . -H" Masson, A 40
Aesthetic experience 5 1 Conveyor beh 16 Gris, J. 34 Marhcma11cal form 54
Airbrush 39 Corbus1cr, Le 58° , 62 Gropius, I. 8 M•t•ldenl'lehe 20
Cubism 6, 32 37, 40, 53, 59, 75. 76, Gropius, W. 6, S. 11, 19. 20, 62° SO M•t1\se, H 38
Arabesque 51
Archipcnko, A. 43 • , 45 84 79 Grosz, G. 40, 80 Metzmger, J. 34
Architecture 22, 56-64, 86 Mexico 46
Arp, H. 40•, 42, 80 D Dad.mm 32, 40 H Hand .sculpture 42. Michelangelo. B. 67
Art 13, 11, 22 , 31, 32, 41. 46, 67 , 76, Dali S 40 Handicraft 20, 31 M1crophotography 25, 26
79 Dance 57 Harmony 5, 52, 53. 55, 80, 84 Mies van der Rohe, L 62
Artist 20, 22, 72, 76 D..Vlncl, L. 18 Hausmann, R. 40, 80 Miro. J 40
Automiltic wril ing -15 Deities 51 Hepworth, B. 42 Mobile 43, 80
Del11uney, R, 6, 34 Hexagram 53, 84 "Modernistic" 59
B Billla, G 40° Dcr;iln, A. 38 Horizontal 62 Moholy-Nagy, L. 5, 6, 8, 39", +.1 °.
B.>uhaus5.8, 10, Jl, 19,20, 21 Design 6, 22, 53 Horn, H. 27" •19, 52, 61°, 63°, 65. 66'"-87 39
Bilyer, H. 8 Display 50, 8'1 Hungary 71. 72". 80, 83 Mondrian, P. 32, 38°, 52, 83
Distortion 34, 37, 38, 84, 86 Montage 72°
Behne, A 59
Duchamp, M. 40 "I 10" 49, 52 Moore, H 42
Behrens, P. 20
Berlin 72 Dvn.im1c 49, 62, 84 IQ 15 Morse, E. 42°
B1olog1cal needs l 3. 16, 11. 29 52 Impressionism 32, 35. 36. 39, 79 Motion 39, 4i, 48, 53, 61, 15, g..: 56
E Economics 15. 5 9. 6 0 India 46 Morion p1crures 8, 36, 39. 40, 45, 5 G,
57, 60,63
Edison, A 29 Institute of Design S. 10. 2.1, 22 46 53, 63, 75. 19, 83, 84
81otechnici. 29. 46°
Education 15 lnrellectua 80 Mumford, L 2.0
Bird's.eye view 63
Eggeltng, V 80 lnfU1t1ve 68 Mummy 51
Blind people 25, 57
Egypt 46, -49 I nde!.Cence 84 .V.unch E 38, 68
Boccioni, U. 49
Botticelh. S 35 Ehrcnb\Jrg, I 80 Mural 32
Eiffel T~er 6 , 61° Jacoby, H. 18. 52 Museum of Modern Art 1 I
Brancusi, C. ·B•
Elements 53, 54 Jeanneret, E. 40
Braque, G 33. 36. 75
Ernst, M . .ii!O Josephson, M. 80 N Naturalism 32, 35 71
"Broom," 80
Expression 17 Negative volume 42. 44, .J7
BrUcke 38 K Kandinsky. W. 38 52 75
Expre~s1onism 38, 71 Negro sculpture 46
Kemeny, A. 49 Neoplast1c1sm 32, 38, 80
C Caaba at Mecca 4 3 Kinetic 38, 39, 61. 62. 84 Niedringhaus, Ch. 24°, 25°
Camouflage 3 1 F Family 51
F<1uves 38, 67 Kinetic sculpture 47, 49, 61
Canons 52, 86 Klee, P. 40, 52 0 0 Brien, K. 44*
Carnap, R. 56 Fenestriltion 62
Fireworks 49 Kokoschka. 0. 68 Odor-Organ 2.q•
Caruso. E. 26* Koppe, R 47'" Olbrlch, J. 20
Cezanne, P 34,38,75 Flrle, 0. 58•
Organic design 29
Chagilll, M. 40 Food 53
Ford factory 6•l 0
L Leger. F. 34 Ornament 30, 3 I
Class struggle l 8 Lerner, N 50° Oud,J . J.62,80
Close-up 38 Fourth dimension 6, 47
Light 35. 39. 40, .is. 50. 63, 12. s3. Ozenf.lnt, A. 40
Collage 45, 72*. 75, 76 79 France, R. 29, 46
84,86
Color 24, 30, 35. 37-39 40, 53, I I, French Revolution 38
Freud. S. 32
Light fresco 51 P Paper cut 28
72 L1pchitz, J. 44. 450 Pavlicek, P. 44°
Color au1omatism 40 Function 20, 29, 52, 59
Lissit~ky, El 80 Pelnture 36. 79
Futurl'>ITI 32, 35, 36, 40•. 49, 6';
Color experiment 40 Loeb, H. 80 Perspec11ve 35, 75
Community 19 Lonberg-Holm, K. 80 Peters, J. 80
Composition 31. 45, 11. 72. 8'1 C G.ibo. N. 45•, 49, SO
Louvre 45, 84 Pevr.ner, A 49
Concave 86 Galileo, G. 29
Lozovock. L 80 Photogr.:im 39, 12., 79

90 91
 Vision in Motion by L. Moholy-Nagy
Photography 27. 39, 45, 49, 50, 76, Specialists 1•1
79,80 Sta go 40, 63 • Of all contemporary artists who hove received world-wide recognition none is more
Photomontage 45, 72 Static 49
versatile than l.Moholy-Nogy. Herbert Read, well known art editor of London soys:
Picabia. F. <40 Structure 5. 25• 28, 31, 33, 36, 51
Sturm, Der 49 "As a painter, typographer, photographer, stage-designer and architect he is one of
Picasso. P. 33. 34, 36
Pla\t1cs 25, 39, 83, 84 86 Subconscious 30, 68 the most creative intelligences of our time." Certainly, no one i.> better quof'fied ro
Plurali>m 3 7 Sullivan, L 20 write this great book of our time, which moy well become the blue-print for educa-
Poetry 48. 68 Super1mpos111on 37, 76
Supremahsm 32, 38 tion through or!. A pioneer-parricipant in the modern artistic end intellectual move-
Pointillism 32
Pos1t1ve-nega1tve 37, 43, 44 Surface treatment 25, 26°, 27•. 34, ments in Europe, Moholy presents in this, liis Iciest book, the essence and summation
Profit 17 35, 51 of his philosophy upon which the educot1onol program of the Institute of Deslgn in
Projection screen 39 Surreal1~ 32, 40
Chicago is founded.
Proportion 53 Symbol 30
Psyehoan.llysis 40, 68 T Tactile exercise!> 23. 24
Psychophysical 52, 53, 54 In clear understandable language, devoid of unintelligible phrases, Moholy clarifies
Tact1lism 24, 28
Purism 32, 40 Talent 17 the relation of modem design, pointing, h1erature, orchllecture, the cinema, science
R R.lphael, S 67 Taylor4ystem 16 ond industry. He makes the most thorough Inquiry thus for attempted into the spoce-
Ray, M . 40 Technlcs 79 time reolily of modern man ond his emotional existence. A strong advocate of the
Re.ilism 32 Technology 15, 16, 30. 60. 72
Telehor 8 Interrelatedness of oil hurnon activities Moholy makes a passionote plea for the in-
Realist manifesto 49
Ten\ion 49, 84 tegration of contemporary orr, technology, science and socio! plonnings with life.
Recreation 16
Rembrandt 68 Testa, A. 28°
Rcnais!.3nce 34, 35, 61. 75 Testing 15
In rho belief thor the most forceful statements ore provided by illustrations the
Texture 2.5. 26•, 27, 3 I. 51, 79, 83
Renoir 84
T1hanyi, L 68 author amplifies his text lavishly with p1ctoriol moteriol, among the Illustrations there
Repetition 31
Representiltion 51 Touch-diagram 24 is o forge variety of medic ond subject moller such os industrial design and adver-
Richardson, H. H. 20 Trad1t1on 31 tising ort; contemporary po'nting including cubism and obstroct ort; photography,
TransP<1rency 39°. 64, 72, 75, 84, 86
Richter, H . 80 photogroms, photomonloges, collages ond shots from motion pictures; sculpture,
Rodchenko 80 Tubular furniture 86
Tzara, T . 80 architecture etc.-oll exomoles by the best exponents In the various fields.
Rodin, A 44
Roofgardens 58 U Utopia 18
Rouault, G. 38 The book will furnish mony readers with o contemporary thinking ollilcde toward ort
Rubin, 8 44• V Van de Yelde. H. 20 and life, and with o new insight into the reason for modern ort. It is recommended
Ruskin-Morris circle 16 Van DoetJ>urg, T. 52, 80
Van Eesteren, C 80 for general reading without reservation.
S Schlele. E. 68 Van Gogh. V. 35, 38. 68
Schlemmer, 0 8 Vantongerloo, G 48•. 80 376 pages 476 illustrollons - mony in color. Typographical design by lhe author.
SChmidt, J 48 Van Vossen, T. 44°
Schw1tters, K. 40, 72, 80 Bound in cloth. 81/2 X 11. $10.50. Published by Poul Theobald, Chicago.
V.ltican 80
Sculpture 41 55, 60, 61. 80 Verne, J 18
k1net1c 43, 47, 49 Vertical 62
In the round 43 Vienna 72
Roman 45 Virtual 47
South Sea 46 Vision, binoculnr 75
Semper, G. 16 Vision, monocular 75
Sensory experiences 11, 17, 23, 51, 58, Vision In motion 75, 76, 86
63 Visual elemenh 67
Seurat G. 38 Volume 41-55. 58, 60. 62, 86
Scverin1, G 35 Vydra, J 31
Sheeler Ch 64 •
Siegel, A. 64• W Walden, H. 80
Slow-motion camera 53 Wells, H. G. 8
Soc10b1ology 22, 54, 79 Weltanschauung 76
Sorensen-Popitz, I. 47° Werkbund 20
Space 5. 6, 36-39, 49. 56-64, 84, 86 Wright, F, L 20. 62°
Space moduliltor 86
Space-ltme 33, 38, 40. 49, 60 Z Zabel, G. 46°

92
Other Books and Prints published by W ittenborn , Schultz, Inc.

lntfrc \fn•>ll11: M;tlwlog) o/ llu11g. A poem, ugla p.-11 a111l 111k ch:nong' an<l a homi,picu~:
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11011.il 01 igm3l etching.
<.eorf_(f ~f'UTal lry ]01111 Re aid. \\ ilh 1111 pl:ilt • 1 Ill 1olor r.arg.- '\O Re\. ed 1916
r.car r.s Braque by .-1. E.. Gallat111. \\uh I! plalt.."1 .ind a color r.1r.si1111lc 1915. 430 C"'Jlll">.
G oige.t Braque: '\lill Life, 191 ;. \ I <1lor r ~hnalc rqn odualon in the ori'!inal me, O\'lll.
1!11!1· 150 copies.
lml•roise rollard: Ed1tc11r, 1~ ; 1919 \n 11ppr<'C1alit111 111111 c:ualO'~llC b\ l°fln TI. jolm.stm
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f)m;·ul 811rliuk by ;.·a1/ler111c S. 1>11·11·1 l111t'\\util h) U1111w11 l'lullip~. \\'ith 53 plates. l!H-1
Hnf11t•r M(lria Rilke: The )',om>ct~ ltJ l)1 /1/11·11•. \\ ilh 11im· t•ng1a\l11g-. h) 1'1111 f'ac.<ch. Gn
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The Documents of Modern Art lli1t•c1<11' l{uhc II \lothl l\\Cll

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Problems of Contemporary Art

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