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The Iconology of Abstraction The Iconology of Abstraction This book uncovers how we make meaning of abstraction, both historically and in present times, and examines abstract images as a visual language. The contributors demonstrate that abstraction is not primarily an artistic phenomenon, but rather arises from human beings’ desire to imagine, understand and communicate complex, ineffable concepts in fields ranging from fine art and philosophy to technologies of data visualization, from cartography and medicine to astronomy. The book will be of interest to scholars working in image studies, visual studies, art history, philosophy and aesthetics. Krešimir Purgar is Associate Professor in the Academy of Arts and Culture at J. J. Strossmayer University, Osijek, Croatia. Routledge Advances in Art and Visual Studies This series is our home for innovative research in the fields of art and visual studies. It includes monographs and targeted edited collections that provide new insights into visual culture and art practice, theory, and research. For a full list of titles in this series, please visit https ://ww w.rou tledg e.com /Rout ledge -Adva nces- in-Ar t-and -Visu al-St udies /book -seri es/RA VS The Digital Interface and New Media Art Installations Phaedra Shanbaum Ecocriticism and the Anthropocene in Nineteenth Century Art and Visual Culture Edited by Emily Gephart and Maura Coughlin Popularization and Populism in the Visual Arts Attraction Images Edited by Anna Schober Dialogues Between Artistic Research and Science and Technology Studies Edited by Henk Borgdorff, Peter Peters, and Trevor Pinch Contemporary Art and Disability Studies Edited by Alice Wexler and John Derby The Outsider, Art and Humour Paul Clements The Contemporary Art Scene in Syria Social Critique and an Artistic Movement Charlotte Bank The Iconology of Abstraction Non-figurative Images and the Modern World Edited by Krešimir Purgar Liquid Ecologies in Latin American and Caribbean Art Edited by Lisa Blackmore and Liliana Gómez The Iconology of Abstraction Non-figurative Images and the Modern World Edited by Krešimir Purgar First published 2021 by Routledge 52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017 and by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2021 Taylor & Francis The right of Krešimir Purgar to be identified as the author of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Purgar, Krešimir, editor. Title: The iconology of abstraction: non-figurative images and the modern world/Krešimir Purgar. Description: New York: Routledge, 2020. | Series: Routledge advances in art and visual studies | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2020003658 (print) | LCCN 2020003659 (ebook) | ISBN 9780367206048 (hardback) | ISBN 9780429262500 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Visual metaphor. | Abstraction. | Art, Abstract. Classification: LCC P99.4.V57 I29 2020 (print) | LCC P99.4.V57 (ebook) | DDC 302.2/26–dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020003658 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020003659 ISBN: 978-0-367-20604-8 (hbk) ISBN: 978-0-429-26250-0 (ebk) Typeset in Sabon by Deanta Global Publishing Services, Chennai, India Contents List of figures viii List of contributors xi Acknowledgments xv Introduction: Do Abstract Images Need New Iconology? 1 KREŠIMIR PURGAR 1 Prolegomena: Why Pictures Are Signs: The Semiotics of (Non)representational Pictures 19 WINFRIED NÖTH PART I History and Theory of Abstraction 31 2 The Founding of Abstraction: Wilhelm Worringer and the Avant-Garde 33 ANSELM TREICHLER 3 The Iconology of Malevich’s Suprematist Crosses 48 MARIE GASPER-HULVAT 4 Anthropomorphism and Presence: (Non)referentiality in the Abstraction of Objecthood 63 BLAŽENKA PERICA 5 Representational Abstract Pictures 77 REGINA-NINO MION PART II Philosophy of Abstraction 87 6 What is Abstraction in Photography? 89 DIARMUID COSTELLO vi Contents 7 Abstraction and Transperceptual Space 104 PAUL CROWTHER 8 The Visualization of Temporality in the Abstract Paintings of Barnett Newman 114 CLAUDE CERNUSCHI 9 Rethinking Abstraction Post-Phenomenologically: Michel Henry and Henri Maldiney 126 BRUNO LESSARD PART III Redefining Abstraction—Analog vs. Digital 141 10 Visual Music and Abstraction: From Avant-Garde Synesthesia to Digital Technesthesia 143 MICHAEL BETANCOURT 11 Ecology and Climatology in Modern Abstract Art 160 LINN BURCHERT 12 Digital Abstraction: Interface between Electronic Media Art and Data Visualization 176 BIRGIT MERSMANN 13 Toward a Transsensorial Technology of Abstraction (Ekstraction) 193 CLEMENS FINKELSTEIN 14 Digital Landscapes of the Internet: Glitch Art, Vaporwave, Spectacular Cyberspace 208 DARIO VUGER PART IV Abstraction in Science and Technology 219 15 The Material Site of Abstraction: Grid-Based Data Visualization in Brain Scans 221 SILVIA CASINI 16 Reference and Affect: Abstraction in Computation and the Neurosciences 235 MICHAEL REINSBOROUGH Contents vii 17 Reality Effect of (Abstract) Maps in the Post-digital Era 248 ANA PERAICA 18 Coda: Visualizing the End of Visibility: M87* Event-Horizon Image 260 YANAI TOISTER Index 269 Figures 1.1 The nonexistent island of Brazil on Waldseemüller’s map of the “British Isles” of 1522. Source: Carl Moreland and David Bannister, Antique Maps: A Collector’s Handbook, Prentice Hall Press, 1983, pp. 53–54 (work in public domain) 24 2.1 Adolf Hölzel, Fugue on a Resurrection Theme, 1916, oil on canvas, 84 × 67 cm. Photo courtesy of Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte Oldenburg, LMO 14.717; photo: Sven Adelaide. Image rights not transferable 39 2.2 Piet Mondrian, Flowering Apple Tree, 1912, oil on canvas, 78.5 × 107.5 cm, exhibited in Gemeentemuseum, Den Haag (work in public domain) 40 2.3 Jackson Pollock, Gothic, 1944, oil on canvas, 215.5 × 142.1 cm, exhibited in the Museum of Modern Art, New York; photo: Alamy Stock Photo 43 3.1 Kazimir Malevich, Hieratic Suprematist Cross, 1920–1921, oil on canvas, 84 ´ 69.5 cm, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (work in public domain) 50 3.2 Kazimir Malevich, Suprematism of the Spirit, 1919, oil on panel, 55.6 ´ 38.7 cm, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (work in public domain) 52 3.3 Kazimir Malevich, Mystic Suprematism (red cross on black circle), 1920–1922, oil on canvas, 72.5 ´ 51 cm, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (work in public domain) 53 3.4 Kazimir Malevich, Black Cross, 1923, oil on canvas, 107 ´ 107 cm, Russian Museum, St. Petersburg (work in public domain) 55 4.1 Donald Judd, Untitled, 1977, Münster, Germany; photo: Florian Adler. Reproduced under terms: CC BY-SA 3.0 65 4.2 Dan Flavin, Untitled, 1970, installation at Dia: Beacon Gallery, New York, 2016; photo: Mauritius Images GmbH/Alamy Stock Photo 67 8.1 Barnett Newman, Onement I, 1948, oil on canvas and masking tape, 69 × 41 cm, Museum of Modern Art, New York, Gift of Annalee Newman, photo: fair use 117 8.2 Barnett Newman, The Third, 1962, oil on canvas, 86 × 103 cm, Walker Art Centre Minneapolis, Gift of Judy and Kenneth Dayton, photo: fair use 120 10.1 Diagram showing a collection of “synesthetic form constants” described by Heinrich Klüver in Mescal and Mechanisms of Hallucination, 1932, photo: courtesy of the author; Artists Rights Society (ARS) 145 Figures ix 10.2 (Upper row) Annie Besant and C.W. Leadbeater, “Illustrative Thought-Forms” as shown in plates 19, 23, and 27 from Thought Forms, 1901; (middle and lower row) Walther Ruttmann, selected stills from Lichtspiel—Opus I [Lightplay: Opus I], 1922 (Eva Riehl reconstruction), photos: public domain 147 10.3 Jamie Fenton, selected stills from Digital TV Dinner, 1978/79, photo: courtesy of the artist 150 10.4 Michael Betancourt, selected stills showing digital glitches from Malfunction, 2000, Artists Rights Society (ARS); photo: courtesy of the author 153 11.1 Robert Delaunay, Formes Circulaires, soleil, 1912/1913, oil on canvas, 75 × 61 cm, Folkwangmuseum Essen (work in public domain) 163 11.2 Wassily Kandinsky, Yellow-Red-Blue, 1925, oil on canvas, 128 × 201.5 cm, Musée National d‘Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (work in public domain) 165 11.3 Johannes Itten, Spring (up) and Summer (down), 1919–1923, oil on canvas, 100 × 150 cm each, Museum Würth, Künzelsau (work in public domain) 167 11.4 Paul Klee, Polyphony, 1932, oil on canvas, 66.5 × 106 cm, Öffentliche Kunstsammlung Basel; photo: fair use 170 12.1 Ryoji Ikeda, exhibition view of the installation datamatics, 2017; photo: courtesy of Ryoji Ikeda Studio 182 12.2 Ryoji Ikeda, Test Pattern, every night on Times Square, New York, 11:57 pm to 0:00 am (for three minutes), from October 1–31, 2014; photo: courtesy of Ryoji Ikeda Studio 184 12.3 Kim Albrecht, AI Senses, “Locating” (up) and “Touching” (down) (software, computer, screen), 2017; photo: courtesy of the artist 187 13.1 Ryoji Ikeda, micro | macro, Carriageworks, Sydney, 2018; photo:
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