SCHEMATIZING (32)
By:
April 20, 2024
One in a series of posts via which HILOBROW’S Josh Glenn will attempt to depict the intellectual and emotional highs and lows of developing a semiotic schema. Series dedicated to its target audience of one: Malcolm Evans.
Theo van Doesburg was one of the founders of the abstract-art movement De Stijl (1917–1931). Sphere — the artist’s first abstract painting, predating De Stijl — is constructed from abstract shapes such as intersecting circles or parts thereof. We read at the Museum de Lakenhal’s website: “During this period [Van Doesburg] developed a new concept of space, based in part on Einstein’s theory of relativity.”
I’ve also seen this painting described as a “spiritual diagram of the universe.” (From the series ‘City of Paint’, in Leidsch Dagblad, 2010.)
Eventually Van Doesburg would find Neoplasticism, i.e., Mondrian’s version of De Stijl, lacking in variety, movement, and energy — particularly so since abstraction’s unique value was, in his thinking, its ability to achieve social order and universal harmony via precise, orderly geometry and vibrant, contrasting colors.
A spiritual diagram of the universe — that’s as good a definition of a semiosphere as any other.
MORE FURSHLUGGINER THEORIES BY JOSH GLENN: SCHEMATIZING | IN CAHOOTS | JOSH’S MIDJOURNEY | POPSZTÁR SAMIZDAT | VIRUS VIGILANTE | TAKING THE MICKEY | WE ARE IRON MAN | AND WE LIVED BENEATH THE WAVES | IS IT A CHAMBER POT? | I’D LIKE TO FORCE THE WORLD TO SING | THE ARGONAUT FOLLY | THE PERFECT FLANEUR | THE TWENTIETH DAY OF JANUARY | THE REAL THING | THE YHWH VIRUS | THE SWEETEST HANGOVER | THE ORIGINAL STOOGE | BACK TO UTOPIA | FAKE AUTHENTICITY | CAMP, KITSCH & CHEESE | THE UNCLE HYPOTHESIS | MEET THE SEMIONAUTS | THE ABDUCTIVE METHOD | ORIGIN OF THE POGO | THE BLACK IRON PRISON | BLUE KRISHMA | BIG MAL LIVES | SCHMOOZITSU | YOU DOWN WITH VCP? | CALVIN PEEING MEME | DANIEL CLOWES: AGAINST GROOVY | DEBATING IN A VACUUM | PLUPERFECT PDA | SHOCKING BLOCKING.