Colin Rowe

and Robert Slutzky

Transparency:
Literal and Phenomenal

'Transparency,' 'space-time,' 'simultane- defined by Gyorgy Kepes in his Language 'transparent cellophane plastic,' 'transpar-
ity,' 'interpenetration,' 'superimposition,' of Vision: 'If one sees two or more figures ency and moving light,' and 'Rubens's ra-
'ambivalence': in the literature of contem- overlapping one another, and each of themdiant transparent shadows' (2), a careful
porary architecture these words, and claims for itself the common overlapped reading of the book might suggest that for
others like them, are often used as syn- part, then one is confronted with a con- him such literal transparency is often fur-
onyms. We are familiar with their use and tradiction of spatial dimensions. To resolve nished with certain allegorical qualities.
rarely seek to analyze their application. this contradiction one must assume the Some superimpositions of form, Moholy
To attempt to make efficient critical instru- presence of a new optical quality. The tells us, 'overcome space and time fixa-
ments of such approximate definitions is figures are endowed with transparency; tions. They transpose insignificant singu-
perhaps pedantic. Nevertheless, in this ar- that is they are able to interpenetrate with- larities into meaningful complexities...The
ticle pedantry will be risked in an attempt out an optical destruction of each other. transparent quality of the superimpositions
to expose the levels of meaning with which Transparency however implies more than often suggest transparency of context as
the concept of transparency has become an optical characteristic, it implies a well, revealing unnoticed structural quali-
endowed. broader spatial order. Transparency ties in the object' (3). And again, in com-
According to the dictionary definition,means the a simultaneous perception of dif- menting on what he calls 'the manifold
quality, or state, of being transparent ferentis spatial locations. Space not only word agglutinations' of James Joyce, or
recedes but fluctuates in a continuous the Joycean pun, Moholy finds that these
both a material condition-that of being
pervious to light and air-and the result activity. The position of the transparent
are 'the approach to the practical task of
45 of an intellectual imperative, of our inher- figures has equivocal meaning as one seesup a completeness from inter-
building
ent demand for that which should be easily each figure now as the closer nowlocked as the units by an ingenious transparency
detected, perfectly evident, and free of further one' (1). of relationships' (4). In other words, he
dissimulation. Thus the adjective trans- By this definition, the transparent seems to have felt that, by a process of
ceases
parent, by defining a purely physical sig- to be that which is perfectly clear and distortion, recomposition, and double-
nificance, by functioning as a critical becomes instead that which is clearly am- entendre, a linguistic transparency-the
honorific, and in being dignified with farbiguous. Nor is this meaning an entirely literary equivalent of Kepes' 'interpene-
from disagreeable moral overtones, be- esoteric one; when we read (as we so tration without optical destruction'-might
comes a word which from the first is richly often do) of 'transparent overlapping be effected, and that whoever experiences
loaded with the possibilities of both mean- planes,' we constantly sense that rather one of these Joycean 'agglutinations' will
ing and misunderstanding. more than a simple physical transparency enjoy the sensation of looking through a
is involved. first plane of significance to others lying
A further level of interpretation-that of
behind it.
transparency as a condition to be dis- For instance, while Moholy-Nagy in his
covered in a work of art-is admirably Vision in Motion continually refers to Therefore, at the very beginning of any

This content downloaded from 129.32.224.70 on Tue, 18 Sep 2018 14:51:27 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
1 C6zanne: Mont Sainte-Victoire

enquiry into transparency, a basic distinc- frontal viewpoint of the whole scene, a certain diagonal spatial recession. On the
tion must be established. Transparency suppression of the more obvious elements other, a series of horizontal and vertical
may be an inherent quality of substance, suggestive of depth, and a resultant con- lines implies a contradictory statement of
as in a glass curtain wall; or it may be an tracting of foreground, middleground, and frontality. Generally speaking, the oblique
inherent quality of organization. One can, background into a distinctly compressed and curved lines possess a certain natural-
for this reason, distinguish between a lit- pictorial matrix. Sources of light are defi- istic significance, while the rectilinear
eral and a phenomenal transparency. nite but various; and a further contempla- ones show a geometrizing tendency which
tion of the picture reveals a tipping forward serves as a reassertion of the picture
Our feeling for literal transparency seems
to derive from two sources: from cubist of the objects in space, which is assisted plane. Both systems of coordinates pro-
by the painter's use of opaque and con- vide for the orientation of the figures si-
painting and from what is usually desig-
nated as the machine aesthetic. Our feel- trasted color. The center of the composi- multaneously in an extended space and on
tion is occupied by a rather dense gridding a painted surface; while their intersection,
ing for phenomenal transparency probably
both oblique and rectilinear; and this area,
their overlapping, their interlocking, and
derives from cubist painting alone; and a
cubist canvas of around 1911 or 1912 apparently, is buttressed and stabilized bytheir building up into larger and fluctuat-
a more insistent horizontal and vertical ing configurations permits the genesis of
would serve to illustrate the presence of
grid which introduces a certain peripheric the typically ambiguous cubist motif.
both orders, or levels, of the transparent.
interest.
As the observer distinguishes between all
One may be skeptical of those too plausi-
Frontality, suppression of depth, contract- the resultant planes, he may become pro-
ble explanations of cubism which involve
ing of space, definition of light sources, gressively conscious of an opposition be-
the fusion of temporal and spatial factors.
tipping forward of objects, restricted pal- tween certain areas of luminous paint and
As Alfred Barr tells us, Apollinaire 'in-
ette, oblique and rectilinear grids, and others of a more dense coloration. He may 46
voked the fourth dimension... in a meta-
propensities toward peripheric develop- distinguish between certain planes to
phorical rather than a mathematical sense
ment are all characteristics of analytical which he is able to attribute a physical na-
(5); and here, rather than attempt the re-
cubism. In these pictures, apart from the ture allied to that of celluloid, others whose
lation of Minkowski to Picasso, it has been
considered convenient to refer to some-
pulling to pieces and reassembly of ob- essence is semiopaque, and further areas
jects, perhaps above all we are conscious of a substance totally opposed to the trans-
what less disputable sources of inspiration.
of a further shrinkage of depth and an in- mission of light. And he may discover that
A late Cezanne such as the Mont Sainte- creased emphasis which is now awarded all of these planes, translucent or other-
Victoire of 1904-06 (Fig 1) in the Philadel-
to the grid. We discover about this time a wise, and regardless of their representa-
phia Museum of Art is characterized meshing
by together of two systems of coor- tional content, are implicated in the
certain extreme simplifications. There dinates. On the one hand, an arrangement phenomenon which Kepes has defined as
is a highly developed insistence on a of oblique and curved lines suggests a transparency.
I II

q p 9r'J ' ,, , . ..

:;'
..?
** ^ ; :.r W *, W^ /r... .?.^.*.?
I~~~n?-a~~iJirC

.? ?

-:~. !..; ...

'r ? ,i'. -

'..?' ? _ '; i ...... i

:,! .

This content downloaded from 129.32.224.70 on Tue, 18 Sep 2018 14:51:27 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 2 Picasso: The Clarinet Player 3 Braque: The Portuguese

The double nature of transparency may be become much clearer if a comparison is flat, planar areas of opaque and almost
illustrated by the comparison and analysis attempted between the works of two monochromatic color which Gris invests
of a somewhat atypical Picasso, The Clari- slightly later painters, Robert Delaunay with such high tactile value, Delaunay
net Player (Fig 2), and a representative and Juan Gris. phasizes a quasi-impressionistic calligra-
Braque, The Portuguese (Fig 3), in each Delaunay's Simultaneous Windows of 1911 phy; and while Gris provides explicit
of which a pyramidal form implies an im- and Gris' Still Life of 1912 (Figs 4, 5) both definition of a rear plane, Delaunay dis-
age. Picasso defines his pyramid by means include objects that are presumably trans- solves the possibilities of so distinct a
of a strong contour; Braque uses a more parent, the one windows, the other bottles. closure of his space. Gris' rear plane func-
complicated inference. Thus Picasso's While Gris suppresses the physical trans- tions as a catalyst which localizes the
contour is so assertive and so independ- parency of glass in favor of a transparency ambiguities of his pictorial objects and en-
ent of its background that the observerof gridding, Delaunay accepts with unre- genders their fluctuating values. Delau-
has some sense of a positively transparent stricted enthusiasm the elusively reflectivenay's distaste for so specific a procedure
figure standing in a relatively deep space, qualities of his superimposed 'glazed leaves the latent ambiguities of his form
and only subsequently does he redefineopenings.' Gris weaves a system of ob- exposed, without reference, unresolved.
this sensation to allow for the actual lack Both operations might be recognized as
lique and perpendicular lines into some
of depth. With Braque the reading of sort the of corrugated shallow space; and in attempts to elucidate the intricacy of ana-
picture follows a reverse order. A highly the architectonic tradition of Cezanne, in lytical cubism; but where Gris seems to
developed interlacing of horizontal and order to amplify both his objects and have intensified some of the characteris-
vertical gridding, created by gapped lines structure, he assumes varied but definite tics of cubist space and to have imbued
and intruding planes, establishes a pri- light sources. Delaunay's preoccupation its plastic principles with a new bravura,
marily shallow space, and only gradually with form presupposes an entirely differ- Delaunay has been led to explore the
is the observer able to invest this space ent attitude. Forms to him-e.g. a low block poetical overtones of cubism by divorcing
47 with a depth which permits the figure to of buildings and various naturalistic ob- them from their metrical syntax.
assume substance. Braque offers the pos-
jects reminiscent of the Eiffel Tower-are When something of the attitude of a De-
sibility of an independent reading of figure
nothing but reflections and refractions of launay becomes fused with a machine-
and grid: Picasso scarcely does so. Picas- light which he presents in terms analogous aesthetic emphasis upon physical
so's grid is rather subsumed within his to cubist gridding. But despite this geom- substance and stiffened by a certain en-
figure or appears as a form of peripheral etrizing of image, the generally ethereal thusiasm for simple planar structures, the
incident introduced to stabilize it.
nature of both Delaunay's forms and his literal transparency becomes complete;
In the first we may receive a pre-vision ofspace appears more characteristic of im- and it can perhaps be most appropriately
literal transparency, and in the other, ofpressionism, and this resemblance is illustrated by the work of Moholy-Nagy. In
phenomenal transparency; and the evi- further reinforced by the manner in whichhis Abstract of an Artist Moholy-Nagy tells
dence of these two distinct attitudes will he uses his medium. In contrast to the us that around 1921 his 'transparent paint-

This content downloaded from 129.32.224.70 on Tue, 18 Sep 2018 14:51:27 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
4 Delaunay: Simultaneous Windows 5 Gris: Still Life

ings' became completely freed from all his pictorial objects at right angles to each havior of clearly defined form. Through flat
elements reminiscent of nature, and to other and to the edges of his picture planes, through an absence of volume
quote him directly: 'I see today that this plane; he provides these objects with a suggesting its presence, through the im-
was the logical result of the cubist paint- flat, opaque coloring; and he sets up a plication rather than the fact of a grid,
ings I had admiringly studied' (6). figure-ground reading through the com- through an interrupted checkerboard pat-
Now whether a freedom from all elements pressed disposition of these highly con- tern stimulated by color, proximity, and
reminiscent of nature may be considered trasted surfaces. While Moholy seems to discrete superimposition, Leger leads the
a logical continuation of cubism is not have flung open a window on to some eye to experience an inexhaustible series
relevant to this present discussion; but private version of outer space, Leger, of larger and smaller organizations within
whether Moholy did indeed succeed in working within an almost two dimensional the whole. Leger's concern is with the
emptying his work of all naturalistic con- scheme, achieves a maximum clarity of structure of form, Moholy's with materials
tent is of some importance, and his seem- both 'negative' and 'positive' forms. By and light. Moholy has accepted the cubist
ing belief that cubism had pointed the way means of restriction, Leger's picture be- figure but has lifted it out of its spatial
toward a freeing of forms may justify the comes charged with an equivocal depth matrix; Leger has preserved and even in-
analysis of one of his subsequent works reading, with a value singularly reminis- tensified the typically cubist tension be-
and its comparison with another post- cent of that to which Moholy was so sensi- tween figure and space.
cubist painting. Moholy's La Sarraz of 1930 tive in the writings of Joyce, and which, in These three comparisons may clarify
(Fig 6) might reasonably be compared with spite of the positive physical transparency some of the basic differences between
a Fernand Leger of 1926: The Three Faces of his paint, Moholy himself has been un-literal and phenomenal transparency in the
able to achieve.
(Fig 7) painting of the last fifty years. Literal
In La Sarraz five circles connected by an For in spite of its modernity of motif, transparency,
Mo- we notice, tends to be as-
S-shaped band, two sets of trapezoidal sociated with the trompe I'oeil effect of a
holy's picture still shows the conventional 48
planes of translucent color, a number of precubist foreground, middleground, translucent
and object in a deep, naturalistic
near horizontal and vertical bars, a liberal background; and in spite of a rather space; while phenomenal transparency
splattering of light and dark flecks, and a casual interweaving of surface and the seems to be found when a painter seeks
number of slightly convergent dashes are elements introduced to destroy the logic the articulated presentation of frontally
all imposed upon a black background. In of this deep space, Moholy's picture can displayed objects in a shallow, abstracted
Three Faces three major areas displaying be submitted to only one reading. space.
organic forms, abstracted artifacts, and On the other hand, through the refined In considering architectural rather than
purely geometric shapes are tied together virtuosity with which he assembles post- pictorial transparencies, inevitable confu-
by horizontal banding and common con- cubist constituents, Fernand L6ger makes sions arise; for while painting can only
tour. In contrast to Moholy, L6ger aligns completely plain the multifunctioned be- imply the third dimension, architecture
I I I _

III

This content downloaded from 129.32.224.70 on Tue, 18 Sep 2018 14:51:27 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 6 Moholy-Nagy: La Sarraz 7 L6ger: The Three Faces

cannot suppress it. Provided with the re- provides the visual support for these in- is primarily occupied with the planar quali-
ality rather than the counterfeit of three ferences, such a transparency of overlap- ties of glass and Gropius with its trans-
dimensions, in architecture literal trans- ping planes is very obviously to be found. lucent attributes. Le Corbusier, by the
parency can become a physical fact. How- There Picasso offers planes apparently of introduction of a wall surface almost equal
ever, phenomenal transparency will, for Celluloid, through which the observer hasin height to his glazing divisions, stiffens
this reason, be more difficult to achieve; the sensation of looking; and in doing so, his glass plane and provides it with an
and it is indeed so difficult to discuss that no doubt his sensations are somewhat over-all surface tension, while Gropius
generally critics have been willing to as- similar to those of a hypothetical permits observer his translucent surface the appear-
sociate transparency in architecture ex- of the workshop wing at the Bauhaus. ance ofInhanging rather loosely from a
clusively with a transparency of materials. each case a transparency of materials is fascia which protrudes somewhat in the
Thus Gyorgy Kepes, having provided an discovered. But in the laterally constructed fashion of a curtain box. At Garches we
almost classical explanation of the mani- space of his picture, Picasso, through the can enjoy the sensation that possibly
festations we have noticed in Braque, Gris, compilation of larger and smaller forms, framing of the windows passes behind
and Leger, appears to consider that the offers the limitless possibilities of alterna- wall surface: at the Bauhaus, since we are
architectural analogue of these must be tive readings, while the glass wall at the never for a moment unaware that the slab
found in the material qualities of glass and Bauhaus, an unambiguous space, seems is pressing up behind the window, we are
plastics, and that the equivalent of their to be singularly free of this quality (Fig 8).not enabled to indulge in such specula-
carefully calculated compositions will be Thus, for evidence of what we have desig- tions.
discovered in the haphazard superimposi- nated phenomenal transparency, we shall At Garches the ground is conceived of as
tions produced by the reflections and ac- be obliged to look elsewhere. a vertical surface traversed by a horizon-
cidents of light playing upon a translucent Le Corbusier's villa at Garches, almost tal range of windows; at the Bauhaus it is
or polished surface (7). And similarly, contemporary with the Bauhaus, might given the appearance of a solid wall ex-
49 Siegfried Giedion seems to assume that fairly be juxtaposed with it. Superficially, tensively punctured by glazing. At Garches
the presence of an all glass wall at the the garden facade at this house (Fig 9) it offers an explicit indication of the frame
Bauhaus, with 'its extensive transparent and the elevations of the workshop wing which carries the cantilevers above; at the
areas,' permits 'the hovering relations of at the Bauhaus are not dissimilar. Both em- Bauhaus it shows somewhat stubby piers
planes and the kind of 'overlapping' which ploy cantilevered floor slabs, and both dis- which one does not automatically connect
appears in contemporary painting'; and he play a recessed ground floor. Neither with the idea of a skeleton structure. In
proceeds to reinforce this suggestion with admits an interruption of the horizontal this workshop wing of the Bauhaus one
a quotation from Alfred Barr on the char- movement of the glazing, and both make might say that Gropius is absorbed with
acteristic 'transparency of overlapping a point of carrying the glazing around the the idea of establishing a plinth upon
planes' in analytical cubism (8). corner. But now similarities cease. From which to dispose an arrangement of hori-
In Picasso's L'Arlesienne, the picture that here on, one might say that Le Corbusier zontal planes, and that his principal con-

This content downloaded from 129.32.224.70 on Tue, 18 Sep 2018 14:51:27 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
8 Bauhaus: corner of the workshop wing 9 Garches: garden facade

cern appears to be the wish that two of through our being made conscious of pri- concern for the picture plane with a most
these planes should be seen through a mary concepts which 'interpenetrate with-highly developed regard for the frontal
veil of glass. But glass would hardly seem out optical destruction of each other.' viewpoint (the preferred views include
to have held such fascination for Le Cor- only the slightest deviations from parallel
These two planes are not all; a third and
busier; and although one can obviously perspective); Leger's canvas becomes Le
equally distinct parallel surface is both
see through his windows, it is not precisely Corbusier's second plane; other planes
introduced and implied. It defines the rear
here that the transparency of his building are either imposed upon, or subtracted
is to be found. wall of the terrace and the penthouse,
from, this basic datum. Deep space is con-
and is further reiterated by other parallel trived in similar coulisse fashion with the
At Garches the recessed surface of the
dimensions: the parapets of the garden
ground floor is redefined on the roof by facade cut open and depth inserted in
stairs, the terrace, and the second-floor
the two freestanding walls which termi- the ensuing slot.
balcony. Each of these planes is incom-
nate the terrace; and the same statement
plete in itself or perhaps even fragmen- One might infer that at Garches, Le Cor-
of depth is taken up in the side elevations
tary; yet it is with these parallel planes as busier had indeed succeeded in alienat-
by the glazed doors which act as conclu-
points of reference that the facade is or- ing architecture from its necessary three-
sions to the fenestration. In these ways dimensional existence, and in order to
ganized, and the implication of all is of a
Le Corbusier proposes the idea that im-
vertical, layerlike stratification of the in- qualify this analysis, some discussion of
mediately behind his glazing there lies a
terior space of the building, a succession the building's internal space is necessary.
narrow slot of space traveling parallel to
of laterally extended spaces traveling one
it; and of course, in consequence of this, behind the other. On first examination this space appears
he implies a further idea-that bounding to be an almost flat contradiction of the
this slot of space, and behind it, there lies This system of spatial stratification brings facade; particularly on the principal floor,
a plane of which the ground floor, the Le Corbusier's facade into the closest the volume revealed is almost directly op- 50
freestanding walls, and the inner reveals relationship with the Leger we have al- posite to that which we might have antici-
of the doors all form a part; and although ready examined. In Three Faces L6ger pated. Thus the glazing of the garden
this plane may be dismissed as very ob- conceives of his canvas as a field modeled facade might have suggested the presence
viously a conceptual convenience rather in low relief. Of his three major panels of a single large room behind and it might
than a physical fact, its obtrusive presence (which overlap, dovetail, and alternatively have inspired the belief that the direction
is undeniable. Recognizing the physical comprise and exclude each other), two of this room was parallel with that of the
plane of glass and concrete and this imagi- are closely implicated in an almost equiv- facade. But the internal divisions deny
nary (though scarcely less real) plan,e alent depth relationship, while the third this statement and instead disclose a prin-
that lies behind it, we become aware that constitutes a coulisse disclosing a loca- cipal volume whose primary direction is
here a transparency is effected not tion which both advances and recedes. at right angles to that which might have
through the agency of a window but rather At Garches, Le Corbusier replaces Leger's been presumed, while in both principal

This content downloaded from 129.32.224.70 on Tue, 18 Sep 2018 14:51:27 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 10 Garches: first floor plan and roof plan

and subsidiary volumes the predominance freestanding walls, and by the top of the interpretation.
of this direction is conspicuously empha- rather curious gazebo-all of which lie on These possibly cerebral refinements are
sized by the flanking walls. the same surface. The second plane now scarcely so conspicuous at the Bauhaus;
The spatial structure of this floor is ob- becomes the major roof terrace and the indeed, they are attributes of which an
viously more complex than it appears at coulisse space becomes the cut in this
aesthetic of materials is apt to be impa-
first, and ultimately it compels a revision slab which leads the eye down to thetient. In the workshop wing of the Bauhaus
of these initial assumptions. The nature of terrace below. Similar parallels are very
it is the literal transparency that Giedion
the cantilevered slots becomes evident; obvious in considering the organization
has chiefly applauded, and at Garches it is
the apse of the dining room introduces aof the principal floor. For here the vertical the phenomenal transparency that has en-
further lateral stress, while the positionsequivalent of deep space is introduced gaged our attention. If with some reason
of the principal staircase, the void, and by the double height of the outer terrace we have been able to relate the achieve-
the library all reaffirm the same dimension. and by the void connecting living room ment of Le Corbusier to that of Fernand
In these ways the planes of the facade with entrance hall; and here, just as L6gerLeger, with equal justification we might
can be seen to effect a profound modifi- enlarges spatial dimensions through the notice a community of interest in the ex-
cation of the deep extension of space displacement of the inner edges of his pression of Gropius and Moholy-Nagy.
which is now seen to approach to the outer panels, so Le Corbusier encroaches Moholy was always preoccupied with the
stratified succession of flattened spaces upon the space of his central area. expression of glass, metal, reflecting sub-
suggested by the external appearance. Thus throughout this house there is that stances, and light; and Gropius, at least in
So much might be said for a reading of contradiction of spatial dimensions which the 1920s, would seem to have been
the internal volumes in terms of the verti- Kepes recognizes as a characteristic of equally concerned with the idea of usi
cal planes; a further reading in terms of transparency. There is a continuous dia- materials for their intrinsic qualities. Bo
51
the horizontal planes, the floors, will re- lectic between fact and implication. The it may be said without injustice, receiv
veal similar characteristics. Thus, after reality of deep space is constantly op- certain stimulus from the experiment
recognizing that a floor is not a wall and posed to the inference of shallow space; De Stijl and the Russian constructivists;
that plans are not paintings, we might ex- and by means of the resultant tension, but both were apparently unwilling to ac-
amine these horizontal planes in very reading after reading is enforced. The fivecept certain more Parisian conclusions.
much the same manner as we have ex- layers of space which throughout each For seemingly it was in Paris that the
amined the facade, again selecting Three vertical dimension divide the building's cubist 'discovery' of shallow space was
Faces as a point of departure. A comple- volume and the four layers which cut it most completely exploited, and it was
ment of Leger's picture plane is now horizontally will all from time to time claim there that the idea of the picture plane as
offered by the roofs of the penthouse and attention; and this gridding of space will a uniformly activated field was most en-
elliptical pavilion, by the summits of the then result in continuous fluctuations of tirely understood. With Picasso, Braque,
-

=i-=L-i

ta-

This content downloaded from 129.32.224.70 on Tue, 18 Sep 2018 14:51:27 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
11 Bauhaus: first floor plan and second floor plan 12 Bauhaus: site plan

Gris, Leger, and Ozenfant we are never ministrative offices, and the workshop lowed them to flow away into infinity; and
conscious of the picture plane functioning wing, the first floor may suggest a chan- by being unwilling to attribute to either of
in any passive role. Both it, as negative neling of space in one direction. Through them any significant difference of quality,
space, and the objects placed upon it, as the countermovement of roadway, class- he has prohibited the possibilities of a po-
positive space, are endowed with an equal rooms, and auditorium wing, the ground tential ambiguity. Thus only the contours
capacity to stimulate. Outside the Ecole de floor suggests a movement of space in the of his blocks assume a layerlike character;
Paris this condition is not typical, although other. A preference for neither direction is but these layers of building scarcely act to
Mondrian, a Parisian by adoption, consti- stated, and the ensuing dilemma is re- suggest a layerlike structure of either in-
tutes one major exception and Klee an- solved, as indeed it must be in this case, ternal or external space. Denied the possi-
other. But a glance at any representative by giving priority to diagonal points of bility of penetrating a stratified space
work of Kandinsky, Malevich, El Lissitsky,view. which is defined either by real planes or
or Van Doesburg will reveal that these Much as Van Doesburg and Moholy es- their imaginary projections, the observer is
painters, like Moholy, scarcely felt the chewed frontality, so did Gropius; and it also denied the possibility of experiencing
necessity of providing any distinct spatial is significant that, while the published the conflict between a space which is ex-
matrix for their principal objects. They are photographs of Garches tend to minimize plicit and another which is implied. He
prone to accept a simplification of the factors of diagonal recession, almost in- may enjoy the sensation of looking through
cubist image as a composition of geomet- variably the published photographs of the a glass wall and thus perhaps be able to
rical planes, but are apt to reject the com- Bauhaus tend to play up just such factors. see the exterior and the interior of the
parable cubist abstraction of space. For The importance of these diagonal views of building simultaneously; but in doing so he
these reasons their pictures offer us com- the Bauhaus is constantly reasserted-by will be conscious of few of those equivocal
positions which float in an infinite, atmos- the translucent corner of the workshop sensations which derive from phenomenal
52
pheric, naturalistic void, without any of'the wing and by such features as the balconies transparency.
rich Parisian stratification of volume. And
of the dormitory and the protruding slab Le Corbusier's League of Nations project
the Bauhaus may be accepted as their over the entrance to the workshops, fea- of 1927, like the Bauhaus, possesses het-
architectural equivalent. tures which require for their understand- erogeneous elements and functions that
Thus in the Bauhaus complex, although weing a renunciation of the principle of lead to an extended organization, and to
are presented with a composition of slab- frontality. the appearance of a further feature which
like buildings whose forms suggest the The Bauhaus reveals a succession of both buildings have in common: the nar-
possibility of a reading of space by layers, spaces but scarcely 'a contradiction of row block. But here again similarities
we are scarcely conscious of the presence spatial dimensions.' Relying on the diago- cease, for while the Bauhaus blocks pin-
of spatial stratification. Through the move- nal viewpoint, Gropius has exteriorized thewheel in a manner highly suggestive of
ments of the dormitory building, the ad- opposed movements of his space, has al- constructivist compositions, in the League

I
I

I
,/

II

This content downloaded from 129.32.224.70 on Tue, 18 Sep 2018 14:51:27 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 13 League of Nations: plan

of Nations these same long blocks define a sort of monumental debate, an argument sideways, to the view of the gardens and
a system of striations almost more rigid between a real and ideal space. the lake beyond. And should the observer
than that at Garches. turn round from this rift between him and
We will presume the Palace of the League
In the League of Nations project lateral of Nations as having been built and an his obvious goal, and should he look at
extension characterizes the two principal observer following the axial approach to the trees which he has just left, the lateral
wings of the Secretariat, qualifies the its auditorium. Necessarily, he is subjected sliding of the space will only become more
library and book-stack area, is re-empha- to the polar attraction of its principal determined, emphasized by the trees
sized by the entrance quay and the foyers entrance. But the block of trees which in- themselves and the cross alley leading
of the General Assembly Building, and tersects his vision introduces a lateral into the slotted indenture alongside the
dominates even the auditorium itself. book stack. If the observer is a man of
deflection of interest, so that he becomes
There, the introduction of glazing along moderate sophistication, and if the pi
successively aware, first, of a relation be-
focusthe flanking office-building and ing
the side walls, disturbing the normaltween the of a screen or a volume of trees b
of the hall upon the presidential box, in-
foreground parterre, and second, of a road might have come to suggest to hi
troduces the same transverse direction. relation between the crosswalk and the that the intrinsic function of this road is

The contrary statement of deep spacecourtyardalso of the Secretariat. And once to penetrate similar volumes and screens,
becomes a highly assertive proposition. within the trees, beneath the low umbrella then by inference the terrace on which
It is chiefly suggested by a lozenge shape they provide, a further tension is estab- he is standing becomes not a prelude to
whose main axis passes through the Gen- lished: the space, which is inflected to- the auditorium, as its axial relationship
eral Assembly Building and whose outline ward the auditorium, is defined by, and suggests, but a projection of the volumes
is comprised by a projection of the audi- reads as, a projection of the book stack and planes of the office building with
torium volume into the approach roads of and library. While finally, with the trees as which it is aligned.
53 the cour d'honneur (Fig 13). But again, a volume behind him, the observer at last These stratifications, devices by means of
as at Garches, the intimations of depth finds himself standing on a low terrace, which space becomes constructed, sub-
inherent in this form are consistently re- confronting the entrance quay but sepa- stantial, and articulate, are the essence of
tracted. A cut, a displacement, and a rated from it by a rift of space so complete that phenomenal transparency which has
sliding sideways occur along the line of that it is only by the propulsive power of been noticed as characteristic of the cen-
its major axis; and as a space, it is re- the walk behind him that he can be en- tral postcubist tradition. They have ne
peatedly scored through and broken down abled to cross it. With his arc of vision been noticed as characteristic of the Bau-
into a series of lateral references-by no longer restricted, he is now offered haus, the which obviously manifests a com-
trees, by circulations, by the momentumGeneral Assembly Building in its full pletely ex- different conception of space. In
of the buildings themselves-so thatfinally, tent; but since a newly revealed lack of the League of Nations project Le Cor-
through a series of positive and negative focus compels his eye to slide along this busier provides the observer with a series
implications, the whole scheme becomes facade, it is again irretrievably drawn of quite specific locations: in the Bauhaus

This content downloaded from 129.32.224.70 on Tue, 18 Sep 2018 14:51:27 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 14 League of Nations: axonometric view

he is without such points of reference. of amorphic outline, is like a reef gently

Although the League of Nations project washed by a placid tide.
is extensively glazed, such glazing, except The foregoing discussion has sought to
in the auditorium, is scarcely of capital clarify the spatial milieu in which phenom-
importance. At the Palace of the League enal transparency becomes possible. It
of Nations, corners and angles are asser- is not intended to suggest that phenom-
tive and definite. At the Bauhaus, Giedion
enal transparency (for all its cubist de-
tells us, they are 'dematerialised.' At the scent) is a necessary constituent of modern
Palace of the League of Nations space is
architecture, nor that its presence might
crystalline; but at the Bauhaus it is glazing
be used like a piece of litmus paper for
which gives the building a 'crystalline
the test of architectural orthodoxy. It is
translucence.' At the Palace of the League
intended simply to give a characterization
of Nations glass provides a surface as
of species and also to warn against the
definite and taut as the top of a drum; butconfusion of species.
at the Bauhaus, glass walls 'flow into one
another,' 'blend into each other,' 'wrap
around the building,' and in other ways
(by acting as the absence of plane) 'con-
1 Gyorgy Kepes: Language of Vision
tribute to that process of loosening up a
2 Moholy-Nagy: Vision in Motion, Chi-
building which now dominates the archi-
cago 1947; pp 188, 194,159,157
tectural scene' (9).
3 Moholy-Nagy: op cit p 210
But we look in vain for 'loosening up' in 4 Moholy-Nagy: op cit p 350 54
the Palace of the League of Nations. It 5 Alfred Barr: Picasso: Fifty Years of His
shows no evidence of any desire to oblit- Art, New York 1946; p 68
erate sharp distinction. Le Corbusier's 6 Moholy-Nagy: The New Vision and Ab-
planes are like knives for the apportionate stract of an Artist, New York 1947; p 75
slicing of space. If we could attribute to 7 Gyorgy Kepes: op cit
space the qualities of water, then his 8 Siegfried Giedion: Space, Time, and
building is like a dam by means of which Architecture, Cambridge, Mass 1954;
space is contained, embanked, tunneled, p 491 and p 490
sluiced, and finally spilled into the in- 9 Siegfried Giedion: op cit p 489; and S.
formal gardens alongside the lake. By Giedion: Walter Gropius, New York
contrast, the Bauhaus, insulated in a sea 1954; pp 54-55

This content downloaded from 129.32.224.70 on Tue, 18 Sep 2018 14:51:27 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms