Punkt, Punkt, Komma, Strich What is Elementary Design in drawing between Art and Science
Macarena Alamos Rojas
Punkt, Punkt, Komma, Strich What is Elementary Design in Drawing between Art and Science
Macarena Alamos Rojas Course of Design Theory SS.15 “What is elementary Design� MAID Fachbereich Design Dessau Department of Design
Content What is elementary design?
7
Punkt, Punkt, Komma, Strich
8
The language 9 The exhibition 11 I. Warum zeichnen? 15 II. Wie lernt man zeichnen?
29
III. Wie wandern Zeichen-Vorlagen?
39
IV. Was muss man beim Zeichnen wissen?
47
V. Wie wird in der Praxis gezeichnet?
59
Conclution 77
5
What is elementary design? We started the Design Theory course guided by the question What is elementary design? This question was the main subject we talked about to understand or at least make a dialogue between all the different aspect that elementary design could be related with. The firs step to get closer to an answer was discuss about the therms “elementary” and “design”. In our cultures we have some concepts or names for somethings that includes the therm elementary on them, like elementary school or the the elements in the periodic table. This concepts helped us to understand that elementary refers to the primary, to the basis, to what is fundamental to learn in school, for what are the fundamental components of all world materia… In these days we understand that design refers to the “science” of solving problems in an effective way, but if we look for this therm more with detail, we will see that design comes from the latin world “disegno” that means draw. If i wan to go deep and try to guess what is elementary design, i will go to take a look in to the minimum elements of drawing: the point and the line.
7
Punkt, Punkt, Komma, Strich From 29. April 2015 and until 29. April 2016 the library of the university of Heidelber is showing an exhibition called Punkt, Punkt, Komma, Strich. The concept of this exhibition is carried out within the framework of the research project “Episteme the lines” in Munich. This project is part of the cooperation of the Central Institute for Art History at the Institute of Art History of Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. Under the supervision of Prof. Ulrich Pfisterer, the project deals with “Episteme the lines” the historical development of drawing. This exhibition is the case of study i took to find out what could i see as elementary design in Draw between art and science (from 1525 to 1925).
8
The language What is important to my visit is the language. My native language is Spanish, i now some English, and just a few words in German. It is important issue because the whole exhibition is in German, so the written language was not the one i wrote. I expected everything was write in german, but that was no problem for me because i new that there was an other language to read and that will guide me to understand what does the exhibition says about draw: the language of drawing. I think it is a beautiful that exist a language that have no specific national code, that everyone can get close and understand at least something about it. This is what drawing is to me, a language that transcends borders. Also i think there is something of this “no borders idea� in our written language. I have to recognize that are a few german words I can understand because they are quite similar to our spanish words, so in this case, i also got some help to understand the exhibition content from the common origin spanish and german language have.
9
the exhibition Since i can read drawings, numbers, and some of the german words, is was no problem understand in how many parts the exhibition was designed. Also i can read space and colors, so the firs thing I did was walk around all the place to get a first impression of the total of the content. In this first walk around I saw a similar quality in the drawings. A similar quality in the way that was used the line and also a similar quality in the complex of the pictures generated. In this firs impression i just got the similarities. Later I stopped in each part/chapter of the exhibition to look at the content, try to link them with the main question of the Design Theory course an try to find the differences that the curators and the investigators wanted to tell.
11
I. Warum zeichnen?
Johann Christoph Weigel NĂźtzliche Anleithung zur edlen Zeichnung-Kunst, NĂźrnberg: Weigel [um 1705]
18
Willem Goeree Natuurlyk En Schilderkonstig Ontwerp Der Mensch-Kunde, Amsterdam: Roman 1753
19
Cours de Dessin ornamental, Tournai [nach 1911] Cours St-Charles, OrlĂŠans. Salle de Dessin [um 1934] 20
E.O. Richter & Co. Chemnitz >Präcision< Reißzeug, 1920er Jahre
21
Louis Charles Dupain de Montesson La Science Des Ombres, Paris: Louis Cellot 1786
22
William Salmon Polygraphice, London: Crumpe 1675
23
Emile Auguste Reiber Propagande Artistique Du Musée Reiber, Paris: Ateliers Du Musée-Reiber 1877
24
James Hamilton Fennell Drawing-Room Botany, London: Thomas 1840
25
sog. Venus vom Esquilin Original: Rom, Kapitolinische Museen, Marmor, H. 157,5 cm, 1. Jh.v.Chr.
26
Nouveau Livre du Dessein, [um 1775]
27
II. Wie lernt man zeichnen?
Hendrik Hondius Fundamentales regulae artis pictoriae et sculpt[urae], [Den Haag]: Hendrik Hondius o. J. [nach 1608 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; vor 1649, mĂśglicherweise 1620er Jahre]
32
Johann Merken Liber Artificiosvs Alphabeti Maioris, oder: neu inventirtes Kunst- Schreib- und Zeichenbuch, [MĂźlheim am Rhein: Eyrich] 1782â&#x20AC;&#x201C;1785
33
Scuola perfetta per imparare a disegnare tutto il corpo humano, [Rom:] Pietro Stefanoni o. J. [1606â&#x20AC;&#x201C;1614]
34
Odoardo Fialetti Il vero modo et ordine per dissegnar tutte le parti et membra del corpo humano, Venetia: Justus Sadeler 1608
35
GĂŠrard Audran Les Proportions Du Corps Humain, Paris: Audran 1683
36
Amaranthe Roulliet Principes de dessin, Paris: Plon 1857
37
III. Wie wandern Zeichen-Vorlagen?
Skizzenbuch [nicht vor 1781]
42
Robert Dodsley Der Lehrmeister oder ein allgemeines System der Erziehung, Leipzig: Heinsius 1782 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 1783
43
Leonardo da Vinci Trattato della Pittura, Bologna: Instituto delle Scienze 1786
44
Charles Taylor A Familiar Treatise on Drawing, London: Sherwood, Gilbert and Piper / Simpkin and Marshall / R. Thurston 1827
45
IV. Was muss man beim Zeichnen wissen?
Fondamento del latre de desegnia, [Amsterdam]: Visscher 1651
50
The artists repository and drawing magazine, Bd. 3, London: C. Taylor 1789
51
Franรงois Charles Michel Marie Principes Du Dessin et du Lavis De La Carte Topographique, Paris: Bachelier 1825
52
Allain Manesson-Mallet Les Travaux De Mars Ou Lâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Art De La Guerre, Den Haag: Moetjens 1696
53
Tommaso Piroli Raccolta Di Studi Come Elementi Del Disegno, Rom: Presso lâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Autore 1801
54
Petrus Camper Dissertation Physique, Utrecht: Wild & Altheer 1791
55
John Hassell The Young Artists Assistant, London: Lackington 1810
56
Charles Le Brun / SÊbastian Le Clerc Caractères des passions, Paris: Nicolas Langlois [1696]
57
V. Wie wird in der Praxis gezeichnet?
Zeichnungen ‚Spirale’
62
[Johann II. Pfalzgraf von Pfalz-Simmern] Eyn schön nützlich büchlin und underweisung der kunst des Messens, Simmern: Hieronymus Rodler 1531
63
Reliefperspektivische Plastik. Gipsabguss des Originals (nach 1884), das nach 1877 im mathematischen Institut der Technischen Hochschule MĂźnchen angefertigt wurde
64
Meno Burg Die geometrische Zeichnenkunst oder vollständige Anweisung zum Linearzeichnen, Berlin: Duncker und Humblot 1845
65
GĂŠrard de Lairesse Les Principes Du Dessein, Amsterdam / Leipzig: ArkstĂŠe et Merkus 1746
66
Joseph Furttenbach Mechanische ReiĂ&#x;Laden, Augsburg: Johann Schultes 1644
67
Eine Zeichnerin mit Freundin, 1795/1810
68
Gaspard Lavater Lâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; art de connaitre les hommes par la physionomie, Paris: Depelafol 1835
69
David Cox A series of progressive lessons intended to elucidate the art of painting, London: Ackermann 1823
70
Nathaniel Whittock The Art Of Drawing And Colouring From Nature, Flowers, Fruit, And Shells, London: Hinton 1829
71
The fist chapter have different situations of drawing, it is like a general introduction where we can see representations of woman drawing men body with a real model, a classroom full of students, instructions or guides about how to draw light, shadow and how to scale a draw, flowers for publicity and flowers for scientific studies, and at the end the ancient sculpture like a perfect model to study the body. This chapter is about the context of the exhibition, where the drawing is a matter of study, showing us that is a technique that you have to learn, that have methods and sometime also it have some codes you have to know to understand the message. In the second section of the exhibition, the exampled selects where strong enough to let me know that they were talking about how people in that time learned how to draw. What i found interesting was that this chapter started showing some pages with letters. What I realized later was that drawing letters was a exercise to make stronger the hands movements. This small or fragmented drawings where also a way to start to learn how to draw. There was the technique to fragment the body in its small components, look hands, nose, foots, eyesâ&#x20AC;Ś they start to study the human body by drawing the elements that composed it. Then in the third chapter they show us different ways of drawing showing us some drawing from Cousin, Leonardo and Preissler, and how drawings were still made by fragments. Is important this
differences between the different artists because each one had a different way to reach the drawing and a different idea of what was it for. After the authors comes the books. Since in the particular case of the investigation that leads this exhibition was the drawing between art and science, there also where a lot of books that says how you should draw, but not in just in the artistic way of draw, there were also for different ways for different areas of knowledge like architecture, cartography, physiognomy, anatomyâ&#x20AC;Ś Now the drowns look similar in their technique, but they have different meaning. My favorite example is cartography, because the use the same primary elements, but the objective is build georeference information. The exhibition finish whit showing what was draw in practice for that times. It is shown like the conclusion that linked all the previous chapters. It start showing the real way to study draw, the different areas that work with draw, the different subjects, the different tools and also what it meant in society. It is very easy to see what they are showing and make the links between the drawings and the title they gave to each chapter. But, Where is the elementary of design? Where are the elementary elements of drawing? Where are the points and lines?
73
I must finish this searching saying that there where no point, no line. No Punkt, no Komma, no Strich. In this case, the elementary aspect was the ability of hiding the drawingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s primary elements that allows to emerge the observation, technique, construction, study and ownership of a language that transcends borders. In this case, the points and lines are so elementary that you can not see them, because there are the primary elements that are the fundamental components of all material.
77