Structural Constellations Phd Thesis 2003
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Anthony W.Auerbach Structural Constellations Excursus on the drawings of Josef Albers c. 1950–1960 I Constellation and Interpretation: Walter Benjamin and T. W.Adorno II Constellation and Drawing: the semiotics of star maps III Structure and Representation: epistemological wish-images With a catalogue of unpublished drawings in the collection of the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation, Connecticut. Thesis submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Slade School of Fine Art University College London 2003 How to read Structural Constellations Ostensibly a monograph on the drawings of Josef Albers, the reader will find under the head- ing ‘excursus’ a series of investigations_into the concept of constellation in the writings of Walter Benjamin and Theodor W. Adorno, the semiotics of star maps, the rhetorics of geom- etry and the structure of representation_in which Josef Albers’s Structural Constellations are not discussed directly for almost 200 pages. Although it departs from its subject matter, this group of essays may be regarded as tending towards an interpretation of Structural Constellations, as Benjamin would say,‘returning in a roundabout way to its original object.’ The main themes of the dissertation are addressed to specific objects: texts by Benjamin and Adorno, star maps in the tradition which stretches between Ptolemy’s Almagest and Argelander’s Bonner Durchmustering, geometry lessons, the gossip about Cubism, works and manifestos by Alberti, Dürer,van Doesburg, Lissitsky and Albers. The aim is to broaden the terms of reference and develop more precise interpretative tools for an assessment of Albers’s Structural Constellations, to place these works in a more accurate historical context and provide the basis for a reassessment of some of the products and rhetorics of twentieth century modernism. The reader should not expect the dissertation to reach a climax with Albers’s Structural Constellations. Albers emerges, even as he dissppears in the elucidation of his works, as a late modernist and practitioner of negative dialectics. His works emerge as a configuration of these dialectics and offer a reflection on the topics and ideas explored in the dissertation. The historical and theoretical discussion of the metaphorical and graphic praxis of constel- lation and what I have called the ‘epistemological wish-images’ mediated by geometry is counterbalanced by a companion volume cataloguing some 1,500 drawings by Josef Albers. Anthony Auerbach Structural Constellations: Excursus on the drawings of Josef Albers c. 1950–1960 I On Constellation and Interpretation: An exchange between Walter Benjamin and Theodor W.Adorno My opening chapter traces the modalities of the term Konstellation as it changed hands between the two writers, from its evocation in Benjamin’s study of German Trauerspiel (1925) through its adoption by Adorno in his programme ‘Die Aktualität der Philosophie’ (1931) to its role in the epistemology of the Passagen-Werk (1935–40) and Adorno’s and Benjamin’s controversies of the same period. I also consider the legacy of this unfin- ished discussion in Adorno’s late work. II On Constellation and Drawing: the semiotics of star maps In this chapter I propose a semiotic analysis of star maps. I examine the graphic expression of the negotiation between knowledge and signification in the post- Ptolemaic tradition of celestial cartography by means of a selection of historical examples. I advance a semiotic theory in order to form an assessment of both innovative and conservative features of celestial cartography. This study includes a treatment of previously neglected nineteenth-century maps. II On Structure and Representation: epistemological wish-images That geometry could be both the guarantee and the abyss of representation calls for an historical as much as a structural explanation. In this chapter I consider drawing as the site of the entanglement of art and geometry. By means of a set of historical episodes, I consider what role geometry, mediated by drawing, has played in art and beyond that, what ideological claims, mediated by geometry, have been made by or for art. I discuss the changing role of drawing in geometry, ancient and modern; and role of geometry in a series of art-historical episodes: Alberti, Dürer, Monge, Farish, Necker, van Doesburg, Lissitzky, Albers. Method is a digression. Representation as digression_such is the methodological nature of the treatise. The absence of an uninterrupted purposeful structure is its primary character- istic. Tirelessly the process of thinking makes new beginnings, returning in a roundabout way to its original object. Walter Benjamin, The Origin of German Tragic Drama Structural Constellations Excursus on the drawings of Josef Albers c. 1950–1960 volume one List ofIllustrationsiv I Constellation and Interpretation: An exchange between Walter Benjamin and T. W.Adorno 1 II Constellation and Drawing: the semiotics of star maps 31 III Structure and Representation: epistemological wish-images 88 1 Geometry and Drawing 88 2Dürer and Alberti: Veils 101 3 Monge: Descriptive Geometry 117 4Farish: Isometrical Perspective 122 5 Haüy: Crystallography 129 6 Necker: An Optical Phenomenon 133 7 Cubism: The Gossip 137 8Van Doesburg: A New Dimension 152 9 Lissitzky: The Constructor 168 10 Albers: Structural Constellations 198 I Reprise: Aesthetic Theory 217 Appendices 221 A Original texts of translations from the German cited in Part I 222 B Original texts of translations from the French cited in Part II 236 CAComparison of Constellation Boundaries 240 DAComparison of Constellation Figures 246 E Original texts of translations from the French cited in Part III 253 Thanks 262 volume two Appendix F Structural Constellations: Catalogue of Unpublished Drawings in the Collection of the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation, Connecticut v List of Illustrations 1Walter Benjamin, Ursprung des deutschen Trauerspiels, book design by Willy Fleckhaus, 1963 (drawing by Josef Albers) 2 Theodor W.Adorno, Minima Moralia: Reflexionen aus dem beschädigten Leben, book design by Willy Fleckhaus, 1962 (drawing by Josef Albers) 3 The northern hemisphere from Eugène Delporte, Délimitation Scientifique des Constellations, Cambridge, 1930 4 The delimitation of Gemini from Eugène Delporte, Délimitation Scientifique des Constellations, Cambridge, 1930 5 The IAU abbreviated constellation nomenclature (computer generated chart) 6 An armillary sphere from Giovanni Paolo Gallucci, Theatrum Mundi,Venice, 1588 7 The Farnese Globe from G. B. Passeri, Atlas Farnesianus, Florence, 1750 8 Drawing of an Arab celestial globe from Adolph Dreschler, Der Arabische Himmelsglobus des Mohammed ben Muyîd el-’Ordhi vom Jahre 1279, Dresden, 1922 9Albrecht Dürer, Imagines coeli septrionales cum dudecim imaginibus zodiaci, Nuremburg, 1515 10 The constellation of Eridanus from Johann Bayer, Uranometria, Augsburg, 1603 11 Böotes from C. Julius Hyginus, Poeticon Astronomicon,Venice 1482 12 The constellation of Böotes from Johann Bayer, Uranometria, Augsburg, 1603 13 The constellation of Gemini from Giovanni Paolo Gallucci, Theatrum Mundi,Venice, 1588 14 The constellation of Corvus from Johann Bayer, Uranometria, Augsburg, 1603 15 Sanctus Tribus Regibus (Hercules) from Julius Schiller, Coelum Stellatum Christianum, Augsburg, 1627 16 The Holy Sepuchre (Andromeda) from Julius Schiller, Coelum Stellatum Christianum, Augsburg, 1627 17 The constellation of Draco from Richard A. Proctor, Easy Star Lessons, London, 1881 18 The head of a serpent from Richard A. Proctor, Easy Star Lessons, London, 1881 19 A monstrous winged serpent from Richard A. Proctor, Easy Star Lessons, London, 1881 20 Orion’s belt and sword from Galileo Galilei, Siderius Nuncius,Venice, 1610 21 The southern hemisphere from Nicolas Louis de Lacaille, Coelum Australe Stelliferum,Paris, 1763 22 The Painter’s Easel from Johann Elert Bode, Uranographia,Berlin, 1801 (photo: Royal Astronomical Society) 23 The northern hemisphere from Robert de Vaugondy, Uranographie,Paris, 1763 (photo: British Library) 24 The pattern of constellation boundaries after M. Wollaston, Celestial Hemispheres, London 1809 25 Lynx and Anviga from F. W.A. Argelander, Uranometria Nova,Berlin, 1843 26 The Microscope from Johann Elert Bode, Uranographia,Berlin, 1801 (photo: Royal Astronomical Society) 27 Table Mountain from Johann Elert Bode, Uranographia,Berlin, 1801 (photo: Royal Astronomical Society) 28 Gemini, Cancer and Canus Minor from Charles Dien, Atlas Céleste,Paris, 1865 29 Charles Dien, Uranographie (detail), Paris, 1830 30 F. W.A. Argelander, Atlas des Nördlichen Gesternten Himmels (detail), Bonn, 1863 31 IRAS PSC Redshift Survey plotted as real space density and velocity fields shown in a slice along the Supergalactic plane. 32 The northern hemisphere from Jacob Bartsch, Planisphaeri Stellati, Strasbourg, 1624 33 The southern hemisphere from Maria Francesco Grimaldi, Chinese Star Chart,Beijing, 1711 vi List of Illustrations 34 The ‘finder chart’ from C. F. Goldbach, Neuester Himmels-Atlas,Weimar, 1799 35 The northern hemisphere from Janet Taylor, Mrs Janet Taylor’s Planisphere of the Stars, London, 1846 36 The Nautical Log and Compass from Johann Elert Bode, Uranographia,Berlin, 1801 (photo: Royal Astronomical Society) 37 An inscribed tomb lid from Nantong, Jiangsu province (Southern Tang Dynasty) from Album of Ancient Chinese Astronomical Relics,Beijing, 1980 38 A typical Chinese star map, drawing of a star map from Longfu Temple, 1453, from Album of Ancient Chinese Astronomical Relics,Beijing,