Mondrian wrote in 1920 that “the straight lines intersect and touch one another tangentially but continue uninterruptedly.” and as art historian Maurizio Calvesi points out: “the result radiates out from the painting to the infinite, but the canvas exhausts the intuition of the whole within itself.”
Every Neoplastic line symbolizes thus an absolute entity with no space-time. The meeting of two opposing lines generates in Broadway Boogie Woogie small squares which are fragments consisting of a horizontal and a vertical part.
Mondrian: “the straight line is the plastic expression of maximum speed, maximum energy and therefore leads to the abolition of time and space.”
The small squares are a relative entity if compared with the absolute line (either horizontal or vertical) they are part of. The small square is a relative entity of a certain extent of space that lasts an instant of time within the line. The small squares therefore symbolize in Broadway Boogie Woogie the birth of space-time.
The small squares join in symmetrical sequences which then generate larger areas of color that, in turn, grow in size until they reach their maximum extension with the plane that unites the three primary colors. The increase in extension of space implies a relative increase in the duration of time. Broadway Boogie Woogie makes visible in plastic terms the birth and progressive consolidation of space-time.
Our space-time as a part of a universal space-time
Science made us aware that our sense of space-time is only a particular case of a universal space-time (micro and macrocosm) that does not necessarily respond to our coordinates. Before and after the interval which constitutes our reality, universal reality no longer responds to our sense of space-time.
“Time is real for us. Beyond time is the true reality, but not our reality. By means of our reality we have to come to the true reality. Hidden more or less by our reality, the true reality is always present. Progress is unveiling of the true reality.” (Mondrian)
“That which is outside of time and space is not unreal. If at first it is only an intuitive concept, it becomes real as our intuition becomes purer and stronger. The new plastic is an intuition that has become plastically determined.” (Mondrian)
The notion of space-time that we experience in a completely spontaneous way (to the point that we cannot imagine anything different) is, in truth, only part of a more extended and variable sense of space-time. Particle physics is investigating this extension and not infrequently is faced with events that cannot be described by our current way of thinking.
“Everything we call real is made up of things that cannot be considered real.” (Niels Bohr)
An elastic space-time
On observing the straight lines that, as Mondrian states, do not stop continuing, it is not possible to fix and isolate a finite portion of space that would last a certain interval of time. This becomes possible when two opposite lines meet and give birth to small squares which are finite and measurable entities lasting for an instant of time within infinite, timeless lines. When we say “timeless” we mean our sense of time.
The small squares form symmetrical sequences, i.e., they tend to extend their finite nature within infinite lines; the symmetrical sequences grow into larger planes; this implies an increase in finite space and time duration which finally reaches the maximum with the largest unitary plane. At a certain point the unitary plane begins to dissolve. This means that our sense of time shrinks again returning to the instantaneous situation of small squares and then to the virtually infinite, timeless lines. This means that our common notion of space-time dissolves turning into the space-time of the infinitely small (microcosm) and the immensely large (macrocosm), i.e., into a universal space-time the never ending Neoplastic lines are a symbol of.
We see here another fundamental difference between the two ancient frescoes and the modern painting. In the two 16th century works, mankind and his sense of space-time is the measure of everything; the 20th century work, on the other hand, shows the absence of space-time (the infinite lines) from which our space-time is generated (squares / symmetries / planes) that then returns towards a universal space-time. We could talk of an “elastic” space-time.
The “supernatural” is still nature
This clearly shows the overcoming of the concept of nature as the only part of phenomena that we actually perceive (evoked by so-called realistic or figurative painting) and its extension to the infinite variety of phenomena that make up the microcosm and macrocosm our reality is part of, that is, to a wider reality.
As long as man considered himself the measure of creation, reality had necessarily to coincide with what he is given to see. For a long time and even today we believe that what appears to our senses is the whole reality while the rest has been defined as metaphysical; beyond; supernatural.
Ascertained through science that what we see is only a part of reality, the “beyond” becomes a “here and now”; a reality that we do not see but that is just as real and substantial component of everything we see. The so called “supernatural” is beyond that part of nature that we can perceive but is still nature. There is nothing surreal in all this but only a healthy update of our concept of reality.
How could painting express this broader picture except by abstracting from the limited part of reality which appears to us?
In extreme summary, we can define the Italian Renaissance as an extension of the concept of reality in force until the end of the 14th century when, to give just one example, the sky was often painted gold. What was the Italian Renaissance if not opening our eyes and minds to contemplate a broader spectrum of reality?
To share the spirit of the Renaissance today means broadening our horizons and contemplating the full variety of the world, which, in the meantime, has grown beyond measure; to broaden our horizons to include artificial reality and, above all, the invisible reality of the microcosm and the unattainable reality of the macrocosm – which are precisely the fruit of the thinking that began to develop during the Renaissance. This is another reason why the natural world is transformed into an abstract space; to represent that part of reality which does not appear to us directly and immediately, but which we now know to be just as real.
I am not speaking solely of philosophical matters but also, and above all, of everyday realities: consider how much of our lives today depends on the invisible reality of the microcosm; to give just one example, when we rely on chemical analyses to understand our body’s state of health; we have never seen cholesterol and probably never will, yet it is very much present in our daily lives and influences them in a very tangible way. And what of the vast universe of images travelling through electrical cables and optical fibres, or arriving in real time via the invisible ether, materialising in concrete form on the screens in our homes?
Just think how much outer space influences our daily lives today: the state of the ozone layer, the hundreds of artificial satellites on which we now rely to manage the complex interrelationships of life here on Earth. With GPRS systems, we entrust to an object travelling through the macrocosm the choice of the route we are taking here on Earth.
A physicist friend of mine explained to me that the almost millimetre-level precision with which certain GPRS systems operate today is also due to certain practical applications of the theory of relativity, which thus makes the leap from theory books into our everyday lives. Plans are already being drawn up to utilise the lunar surface to generate energy for use on Earth.
In the course of the first half of the 20th century there is a further realization of how nature really is, i.e., no longer just blue skies, green mountains and red apples. From this point of view, the process of abstraction pursued by Mondrian seems to be in tune with the Renaissance spirit aimed at observing and depicting reality in its full extent and true essence. This type of abstract art unveils true reality.
Leonardo da Vinci
“The senses are terrestrial, reason is beyond them when it contemplates” wrote Leonardo da Vinci. In this affirmation I see an implicit reference to a vision intuited by reason that goes beyond the most immediate perception of the senses. Leonardo said that “painting is innate to the visible” adding, however, in another note that “painting is a mental activity”. It follows that the painter must take into account not only what he sees, that is, what appears to the senses, but also what, according to reason and intuition, nature really is.
“Art must look not at the appearance of nature but at what nature really is. If we wish to fully represent nature, we are forced to look for another plastic expression. And it is precisely out of love for nature and reality that we avoid its natural appearance” (Mondrian)
Having said that, painting is and remains a question of beauty, harmony, equilibrium, pleasure of the eye that should at the same time satisfy our mind and spirit.
Copyright Michele (Michael) Sciam. All Rights Reserved More