Mondrian's Philosophy of Visual Rhythm: Phenomenology, Wittgenstein, and Eastern thought

Description

This volume investigates the meaning of visual rhythm through Piet Mondrian’s unique approach to understanding rhythm in the compositional structure of painting, drawing reference from philosophy, aesthetics, and Zen culture. Its innovation lies in its reappraisal of a forgotten definition of rhythm as ‘stasis’ or ‘composition’ which can be traced back to ancient Greek thought. This conception of rhythm, the book argues, can be demonstrated in terms of pictorial strategy, through analysis of East Asian painting and calligraphy with which Greek thought on rhythm has identifiable commonalities. The book demonstrates how these ideas about rhythm draw together various threads of intellectual development in the visual arts that cross disparate aesthetic cultural practices. As an icon of early 20th Century Modernism, Mondrian’s neoplasticism is a serious painterly and philosophical achievement. In his painting, Mondrian was deeply influenced by Theosophy, which took its influence from Eastern aesthetics; particularly East Asian and Indian thought. However, Mondrian’s approach to visual rhythm was so ideosynratic that his contribution to studies of visual rhythm is often under-recognized. This volume shows that a close inspection of Mondrian’s own writing, thinking and painting has much to tell scholars about how to understand a long forgotten aspect of visual rhythm. Rodin’s famous criticism of photography (“athlete-in-motion is forever frozen”) can be applied to Muybridge’s zoopraxiscope, the Futurists’ rendition of stroboscopic images, and Duchamp’s “Nude Descending a Staircase.” Through a comparative study between Mondrian’s painting and these seminal works, this volume initiates a new convention for the cognition of the surface of painting as visual rhythm. Front Matter ....Pages i-xxvii Mondrian’s Theoretical Beginnings and Spiritual Background of Neoplastic Rhythm (Eiichi Tosaki)....Pages 1-39 Rhythm in Mondrian’s Early Theory of Painting (Eiichi Tosaki)....Pages 41-75 Dynamic Rhythm and Static Rhythm: Polemics of Mondrian’s Theory of Rhythm (Eiichi Tosaki)....Pages 77-103 Mondrian’s Rhythm and Contemporary Music (His Music Peers) (Eiichi Tosaki)....Pages 105-141 Concepts of Rhythm in Music, Philosophy and Painting (Eiichi Tosaki)....Pages 143-177 Appreciation of Visual Rhythm: Husserl’s ‘Image-Object’ and Wittgenstein’s ‘Seeing-as’ (Eiichi Tosaki)....Pages 179-210 Cognitive Approach to Reading Visual Rhythm: Wittgenstein’s ‘Aspect-Dawning’: Painting Surface and Rhythm (Eiichi Tosaki)....Pages 211-253 Back Matter ....Pages 255-260