On the Mechanics of Abstract
Painting
George
L.
K. Morris
1.
tE HISTORICAL SEQUENCES
at the end of which painting reached
abstraction can be concisely summarized in a chart such as the
following, which shows how artists at various stages would have
rendered a particular object, in this case a wine-glass:
'i.S
w.n.o..t
Only the typical approaches are indicated as the diagram* in no
way pretends to he inclusive.
The first (classical) rendition demonstrates the general man–
ner in which a painter would have simulated a natural object dur–
ing the Renaissance, and, through Ingres, into the more recent
academic tradition. It is a serviceable method for turning form
by modelling with such lights and shadows as describe the shapes
sculpturally. For several centuries it served the expressive ends of
western painting through many ramifications until banality became
the inevitable result. The second (impressionist) method softened
or discarded the contours in favor of light-effects
over
the forms,
while sculptural weight was supplanted by a sort of tinted haze.
Cezanne's method (number 3) is severely handicapped in such a
rendition deprived of color; it initiated a fresh structural impulse
and sought to bring solidity into impressionism by breaking the
*For the idea of this chart I am indebted to the French painter Robert Delaunay.
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