The Materiality of Modernisms

G. Casara, S. Palmeirim, V. Tocco (eds) THE MATERIALITY OF MODERNISMS Edited by Giorgia Casara, Simão Palmeirim, Valeria Tocco THE MA TERIALITY O F M O D ERNISMS EUROPEAN MODERNISM STUDIES / 12 In the last decades, the material and medial turn has profoundly reshaped how we approach literature, art, and culture. Rather than conceiving works exclusively as vehicles of representation, scholars have become increasingly attentive to the ways in which texts, images, and performances are produced, transmitted, and received through material supports and technical media. Thus, the modernist field is no longer seen as a closed canon of exemplary works and authors. Instead, the plurality of modernisms – literary, visual, performative, and cross- disciplinary – has become a guiding concept. By interrogating the infrastructures, artefacts, and supports of modernist production, we encounter not one but many modernisms: sometimes complementary, sometimes contradictory, always historically situated. The same happens for each essay presented here, which contributes in a very specific way to a key proposition debated during the 3rd CEMS conference in Lisbon and consolidated in this volume: materiality is not simply a property of objects but a performative process that shapes meaning, perception, and forms of knowledge production and conception. Cover: Page from Klee’s Theory of pictorial configuration , Artistic design theory: I.2 Principle order. Pen, watercolor and pencil on paper (recto); 21.8 x 27.5 cm. Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern: https://www.zpk.org. Image credits: Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern, Image archive. 36,00 euro www.ledizioni.it www.ledipublishing.com EUROPEAN MODERNISM STUDIES / 12 Collana dir etta da Massimiliano T ortora e Annalisa V olpone Comitato Scientifico V alentino Baldi (Stranieri di Siena) Federico Bertoni (Bologna) Anne-Marie Di Biasio (Institut Catholique de Paris) Pierluigi Pellini (Siena) V aleria T occo (Pisa) Collana del Centre for European Modernism Studies The Materiality of Modernisms Edited by Gior gia Casara, Simão Palmeirim, V aleria T occo The Materiality of Modernisms ISBN cartaceo 9791256005338 ISBN eBook 9791256005345 ISBN PDF in Open Access 9791256005352 © 2025 Ledizioni – LEDIpublishing V ia Boselli 10, 20136 Milan, Italy www .ledizioni.it First edition: october 2025 V olume pubblicato in collaborazione con la Fondazione Camillo Caetani This work is funded by national funds through FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a T ecnologia, I.P ., under the project UIDB/00417/2020 https://doi.or g/10.54499/ UIDB/00417/2020. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17310689 Edited by Giorgia Casara, Simão Palmeirim, V aleria T occo Editorial revision: Giorgia Casara, Alessandra Caridi, Niccolò Fallani. English revision: Jodi Sandford. Cover image | Page from Klee’ s Theory of pictorial configuration , Artistic de- sign theory: I.2 Principle order . Pen, watercolor and pencil on paper (recto); 21.8 x 27.5 cm. Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern: https://www .zpk.org.Image credits: Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern, Image archive. This volume originates from a call following the Third International CEMS Conference The Materiality of Modernisms, held at NOV A FCSH, Colégio Almada Negreiros, in Lisbon, 15 to 17 of December , 2022 [https://cems2022. weebly .com/]. The essays were subject to a blind peer review process. All au- thors have secured image permissions for each chapter , respectively . T ABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction 1 1 Foreword Johanna Drucker | Seeing the Screen: The Materiality of Modern Photorealism in Knowledge Production 19 Re-Reading, Re-Thinking Diogo Mar ques | A Dream of T ransparency vs. a Desire for Opacity: Digital Literature’ s Self-Reflexive Critique through Glassy Surfaces 41 Pablo Santa Olalla | From the Inobjetales T owards a “Language of Action”. Clemente Padín and His Theoretical-Practical Critique of the Process of Dematerialization of Art during the Seventies 73 Poppy Sfakianaki | La Bête Noir e : A Little Magazine on the Mar gins of Surrealism 101 Francesca Degli Atti | A Corporeal Experience of the W orld: On Poetry and Materiality in Manoel de Barros 139 Eugenio Lucotti | The Reader as Philologist: T extual Materiality in Augusto Abelaira 175 Around and About Images Marta Soar es | Exclusions and Recoveries: The Hybrid Materiality of Animated Films 203 Cristiana Sorr entino | On a New Definition of Italian Photographic Modernism between the 1920s and 1930s: Theoretical Approaches and Material Sources 235 Simão Palmeirim - Pedr o Fr eitas | On a Critical Edition of an Artist’ s Book 261 Isabel F . Sar gento - Diogo R. Ferr eira | Searching for the Poetic Imagery of Cesário V erde 295 Ar t’s Ma terials, Processes, and Visions Hannah De Corte | His and Her Materials. Looking at Camille Pissarro’ s ‘Julie Pissarro Sewing beside a W indow’ and the Fabric of Impressionist Painting 325 Silvia Marin Barutcieff | Encounters with Modernism. Romanian Female Artists T ravelling to Munich in Search of Professional Education (1890-1914) 369 Jessica V eevers | Materiality and Mattering: Acrylic Paint and Montreal Hard-Edge Painting 393 Monica Jansen | Celso Costantini’ s Critique of Novecentismo : The Modernity of Christian and Missionary Art 413 Carlos Bártolo - Maria João Fonseca | A Spiked Decision: Semantic Questions around the Cacti Fences of the Rationalist Houses of O’Gorman, Rivera, and Kahlo (1929-1932) 443 P aradigms and Hermeneutics Ana Ilievska | Moderate Barbarogeniuses: The Modernism of Fernando Pessoa, Srečko Kosovel, and Adele Gloria 479 Louis Armand | Object Situations 513 Bianca Melito | Metaphor as Or gan of Dehumanization. On Sense and Significance in the Aesthetics of José Ortega y Gasset 527 Miguel Zenha | Hermeneutics Matters: Gadamer and Moretti on Interpretation 553 Contributors 579 Credits 589 FOREWORD J ohan na D r ucker SEEING THE SCREEN: THE MA TERIALITY OF MODERN PHOT OREALISM IN KNOWLEDGE PRODUCTION Figure 1 | NASA, James W ebb Space T elescope, first images, July 1 1, 2022. https://www .nasa.gov/webbfirstimages Overview The historical legacy of photography as a transparent medium, once famously characterized by the French critic Roland Barthes as a “message without a code”, sustains certain beliefs about images produced within its conven- tions 1 . The elaborate manipulation involved in creating 1 Roland Barthes, “The Photographic Message”, in A Barthes Reader , ed. Susan Sontag (New Y ork: Hill and W ang, 1961): 194-210, 196. THE MA TERIALITY OF MODERNISMS 20 highly processed visualizations from data and signals is further naturalized by the display of such images on screens, the ubiquitous site of mediated communication in contemporary culture. Three crucial components are combined in the images created by the James W ebb Space T elescope (hereafter , JWST) team: data processing, vis- ualization that appears to be a direct display of observa- tion, and the lar gely ignored situation of viewing. These can be critically examined through theoretical frameworks of “medial ideology” and visual studies that draw on the examination of materiality within modern culture and its representational strategies 2 . The powerfully compelling ‘pictures’ produced from the JWST project offer an op - portunity to link the long history of modern materiality with contemporary practices in which knowledge produc- tion and popular culture are connected and to examine the role of the screen in circulation and reception of images. The case study provides an example of the lar ger issue of material ideology in which representations appear to be self-evident presentations. Image and expectations The first ‘images’ circulated to the public from the JWST appeared in July 2022. The expense and time scale of the project had built suspense that needed to be met with visual images that would satisfy popular expectations. The JWST had been hyped for its ability to see ‘beyond’ the limits of what had ever been ‘seen’ before. It was to pro- vide a view into the early history of the universe by cap- turing light from billions of years ago. The entire scenario had a sci-fi frisson of excitement about it, a mind-bending 2 Matthew Kirschenbaum, Mechanisms: New Media and the For ensic Imagination (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2007) is the source for the phrase “medial ideology” and by extension, “screen ideology”. SEEING THE SCREEN 21 aspect that suggests an experience just on the edge of what is believable. The challenge for the images was to meet the eager public with a completely satisfying pictorial expe- rience. Though only the most naïve viewer might believe they were ‘looking at’ the early universe, the ability of the photographically coded images to produce what Barthes called “the perfect analogon ” of a distant event made the visuals particularly important 3 . Here, then, are those images. Filled with swirling clouds of what seems to be cosmic dust from star creation pitched against the deep blue of the receding universe, the image is replete with lens flares and dimensional imaging, full color , and stylistically positioned right between fan- tasy and realism. The photographic codes on which it is constructed read with convincing legibility and authority . Needless to say , this makes it easy to believe we are actu- ally seeing a picture of the early formation of the universe. T aken apart through a critical analysis of the compo- nent parts – the image production, photorealistic codes, and screen media ideology – the image reveals many atti- tudes that link materiality in the modern period to contem- porary beliefs about pictorial representation. Materiality The opening sequence of Noah Bombach’ s 2022 film adaptation of Don DeLillo’ s 1985 novel White Noise shows a projector being turned on, film feeding into the sprockets, and light projecting through the lens. The se- quence could be a textbook demonstration of 1980s film theory in which the workings of the cinematic apparatus are revealed, calling attention to the materiality of the sig- nifier and production of illusion through projection. 3 Barthes, “The Photographic Message”, 196. THE MA TERIALITY OF MODERNISMS 22 Forty years ago, these revelations were considered the hallmark of self-conscious modernism, the ‘deconstruc- tion’ of the semiotic system through attention to its op- erations. W e sought signs of this activity everywhere in the modern corpus ‒ in the work of Dziga V ertov , Jean- Luc Godard, Chantal Ackerman, the writings of Georges Perec, Raymond Queneau, the Russian Formalists, the Language Poets, and works of New Music that were taken apart to the atomic level of their pips and squeaks. The “revelation of the apparatus” and “materiality of the sig- nifier” became a powerful catch-phrase in semiotic anal - ysis 4 . Attention to the how of meaning production felt far more important than reading through a text or image to the what. Much truth resides in this, and understanding the making of meaning remains crucial to the reading of any presentation or representation in order to understand its workings. Coming to terms with what that materiality was, how it functioned, and where it was integrated into the concep- tion of knowledge, not just the pr oduction , poses challeng- es of another order . Conceptual parameters influence the very terms on which we imagine knowledge into being. If we think a phenomenon is a vibration, do we attempt to apprehend it with our olfactory apparatus? The desire to see has a primacy in sense experience (even if, para- doxically , visual imaging is placed lower than textual or mathematical representations in knowledge production) 5 . 4 Theresa Hak Kyung Cha (ed.), Apparatus (New Y ork: T anam Press, 1980) and Johanna Drucker , The V isible W or d: Experimental T ypography and Modern Art 1909-1923 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994). 5 Johanna Drucker , “Digital Ontologies: The Ideality of Form in/and Code Storage–or–Can Graphesis challenge Mathesis”, Leonar do #2, 34, 2002: 141-145. And also Johanna Drucker , Graphesis (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2014). SEEING THE SCREEN 23 The recent images of data processed through the techno- logical system that is commonly referred to as the James W ebb Space T elescope (JWST) offer a fresh case study in the historical and conceptual dimensions of knowledge in relation to representation. What we see is what we believe, and how we believe is intimately connected to what we see. The issue of how , historically , culturally , and conceptually all of this comes to be associated with certain visual modes is what the JWST image provokes. The film references that Bombach invokes feel dated, even clichéd, deliberately so as they are used to invoke the film’ s 1980s epoch. The idea that the “apparatus” could be revealed makes it seem that we have only to draw aside the curtain to see the little man operating the levers of illusion. But modern materiality infuses the technologies of visual representation with an elaborately layered system of what constitutes visual realism. In pictorial terms, photography is the sine qua non of this realism – originally celebrated as the “pencil of nature” by Henry Fox T albot, who, like others, saw the direct inscription of light on a receptive surface as an irrefutable trace of the actual world. The materiality of the photographic, the mythic discourse sug- gests, is identity to what it instantiates as the trace of light. But the W ebb images are not photographs – and that is the crucial point. They are visual renderings of data creat- ed according to photographic codes that provide a particu- lar image experience. Some attention to the construction of these images is essential before circling back to the dis- cussion of their photographic code and its role in passing ideology off as knowledge. Image construction On its official site, NASA describes the initial images released from the JWST project this way: “This landscape THE MA TERIALITY OF MODERNISMS 24 of ‘mountains’ and ‘valleys’ speckled with glittering stars is actually the edge of a nearby , young, star -forming region called NGC 3324 in the Carina Nebula. Captured in infra- red light by NASA ’ s new James W ebb Space T elescope, this image reveals for the first time previously invisible areas of star birth” 6 . The phrase “previously invisible” suggests that the telescope is “seeing” better than its predecessors. But the images that are associated with the W ebb telescope are non-optical. They are visualizations of information gath- ered from the electromagnetic spectrum, not images of visible light. This might seem like a nuance rather than a critical issue, except that conventions for visualizing these ranges of electromagnetic spectrum are not fully estab- lished. How do we depict ultraviolet graphically? Or infra- red? Or radio waves? Whatever the answer , the visualiza- tions are all produced using graphic conventions that were developed to show properties like amplitude, frequency , or other features of what are essentially non-optical phenom- ena. These images have analogies to structural features of the phenomena they represent (range, variable values, duration) but they are not derived from visual properties inherent in the phenomena. The work involved in creating these images from the information gathered by the W ebb telescope involves mul- tiple data sources, complex analytic processes, elaborate computational activities, and the integration of these into a format that can then be rendered as a display . This series of integrated activities involves decisions at every point along the way about what will or won’ t be preserved as significant information and how this data will be translated into a visualization. Massive mediation is at work in the process of abstracting information from phenomena into a 6 James W ebb Space T elescope, NASA. https://www . nasa. gov/image-article/nasas-webb-reveals-cosmic-cliffs-glit - tering-landscape-of-star -birth/. SEEING THE SCREEN 25 form that can be rendered as an image. A few more details about this will make that clear , but to reiterate, the crucial issue is that the visualizations are not a pictur e of the phe- nomena , they are graphic renderings of information that has no inherent visual form. What, we might ask, consti- tutes the link between the materiality of the data as code and the material qualities of the image? The W ebb T elescope used two main information gath- ering devices – NIRCam, the Near -Infrared Camera and MIRI, the Mid-Infrared Instrument. NIRCam is designed to detect light in the infrared area of the spectrum by blocking brighter light and focusing on fainter signals. In the more detailed discussion of the technology used in the NIRCam, the NASA site describes the detectors that received filtered and “spectroscopically dispersed” light 7 . The “detectors are where photons are absorbed and ulti- mately converted into the electronic voltages we meas- ure” 8 . The discussion of the detectors can get very techni- cal very quickly as they are made of materials that can be customized to pick up specific wavelengths of light which are in turn processed quantitatively and statistically . In other words, these complex processing units do anything but take ‘a picture’, to use the words of in Kate LaRue’ s report of the event in the New Y ork T imes in July 2022 9 . In addition to the signals picked up by the specific in - struments that were part of the JWST technology , infor - mation from other sources is aggregated into the visual- izations. Optical information from the Hubble telescope, 7 James W ebb Space T elescope, NASA. https://www . jwst.nasa.gov/content/about/innovations/infrared.html. 8 James W ebb Space T elescope, NASA. https://www . jwst.nasa.gov/content/about/innovations/infrared.html. 9 Kate LaRue, “Nearly a million miles away , the James W ebb Space T elescope just took a picture”, NY T imes Magazine (November 5, 2023). https://www .nytimes.com/interac- tive/2023/1 1/05/magazine/james-webb-space-telescope.html. THE MA TERIALITY OF MODERNISMS 32 In Mechanisms , his work 2007 on materiality , Matthew Kirschenbaum described an effect he termed media ide - ology 17 . This was the tendency to read the media artifact instead of the processes by which it was produced, to take it as self-evident, an image or text whose provenance need not be tracked farther than the identifying website or url. The authority of the mediated image/text came from its belonging to a reputable publishing source. But Kirschenbaum was driving at the need to see the longer life-cycle of production, the acts of editing, rework, trans- formation – in short the mediating aspects of the process. Extending this critical approach to the study of images on screen – in particular the massive displays in public places on which the rather fantastic (even fantasmatic) JWST vis- uals appeared – the ar gument is particularly compelling. The images present themselves as direct images, not me- diated productions conjured from non-visual signals and turned into graphic display across an unlimited number of screens in many locations. Finally , the term scr een here carries both a technolog- ical specificity as the site in which much of current infor - mation is viewed, and in addition, a conceptual association with the psychoanalytic concept of projection and illusion fundamental to human consciousness. This latter percep- tion of screens draws on psychoanalytic theory and returns us to the site of Baumbach’ s use of the projector , attention to its sprockets and lamps. That is the notion of screen as itself a site of human projection, not merely a convenient support for consumption of images. This connects with the Freudian concept of “screen memory” manufactured as a substitute or block against an actual memory that might 17 Johanna Drucker , “A Review of Matthew Kirschenbaum’ s Mechanisms: New Media and the For ensic Imagination ”, DHQ, 2009, V olume 3 Number 2. Mechanisms (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2007). https://www .digitalhuman- ities.or g/dhq/vol/3/2/000048/000048.html. SEEING THE SCREEN 33 be too traumatic, or , perhaps, a memory inadequate to the narrative someone wishes to use to explain their present life in terms of their past. Much more could be elaborated here about the collective engagement with screen display in which the JWST images circulate. But in brief, what is important is that the screen natu- ralizes the viewing experience of the JWST images, insert- ing them in a continuum of contemporary media that sim- ply streams. Some degree of skepticism may temper the reception of whatever appears, particularly in our “deep fake” era, but still, the screen is both site and instrument, the place and the impactful technology , through which in- formation is received. The viewer , largely passive in the traditional sense of watching, identifying with the site of viewing, and the circumstances, experiences few obstacles to that reception. Even the possibility of doubt is lar gely outside of the structure of the viewing situation. W e see, we believe, and then, perhaps, we question. But the psy- choanalytic dimension of this identification allows for the screen to serve as both surrogate, a substitute for any ‘ real’ that might intervene, and as a projection of the individual’ s own desires. W e see what we want to see, in that sense, in every instance of viewing. The extent to which this in- flects the viewing experience varies, of course, in severity and degree. All of this simply intensifies the ideological effect of viewing the JWST images on screens over T imes Square, on phones, televisions, and other devices. Performative materiality and modern legacies Materiality cannot be read simply as a list of properties and their attributes, as if meaning were inherent in ma- terial in a self-evident way . The ideology of the screen, like that of the photorealistic codes, is in the performative dimension of how these properties work, what they do. THE MA TERIALITY OF MODERNISMS 34 This concept resonates with the conviction that matter , the material world, has agency , which has gained consid- erable currency with the writings by Jane Bennett, Karen Barad, and others in the realm of new materialisms 18 . No technology had a greater impact on image produc- tion and conception in the modern period than photogra- phy . The ripple effect in many domains was enormous, not least of all in such activities as self-perception through portraiture – how an individual was identified in social, political, and criminal systems was deeply integrated into photographic operations 19 . Photography challenged the principles of realist painterly production, as if its inscrip- tion of light defied all stylistic intervention. The pure pic - ture, the actual trace, the unmediated version of the real world appeared. Photography could stop motion, catch birds in flight and horses on the run. It could trap memories and moments, and also capture the incidental information of ephemeral events. Photography became the meta-me- dium of print, with its ability to remediate any and every image, though the search for ways to reproduce the values of continuous tone was a holy grail throughout much of the first century of its invention in the 1820s and until the halftone screen came into widespread use for printing. W ith, as already mentioned, the invention of the Xray , the possibilities of extending photographic vision into the unseen world only amplified its authoritative relation to scientific knowledge and empirical inquiry . Because pho - tography was produced through direct exposure to light it set the terms of visual realism for modernity . In docu- mentation work – whether the exploration of the American W est for railroad expansion, the image of microscopic 18 Jane Bennett, V ibrant Matter (Raleigh, NC: Duke University Press, 2010) and also Karen Barad, Meeting the Universe Halfway (Raleigh, NC: Duke University Press, 2007). 19 Allan Sekura, “The Body and the Archive”, The Body 24, 1986. DOI:10.4324/9781315242002-17. SEEING THE SCREEN 35 creatures, aerial and underwater photography , the use of the medium in news, media, and scholarship –photogra- phy was associated with an unquestioned credibility . (This was so true that photographs of the “Cottingley Fairies” produced in 1917 by Elise W right and Frances Griffiths were taken as absolute evidence. No one would disbelieve a photograph any more than they could imagine teenage girls being capable of deception. Imagine!) Photography was considered an empirical technique with all of the as- sociated assumptions and presumptions of its ability to re- cord “the real” without inflection. While we may no longer think adolescent girls are in- capable of ingenious deception, our attitudes towards pho- tography remain lar gely unchanged. If we want to ‘ see’ the world, we want to see it in photographic renderings. W e inherit this belief system, even more so as the status of photography is so familiar . Photographic images are in- dexical, the trace of light. That is the bottom line. Even our critical engagement with the constructed-ness of images— manipulations in the camera, darkroom, or digital file – are all part of an intellectual understanding that is grounded in the inherent ‘ truth’ of the photographic picture. In our moment, the ‘ apparency’ of what is available to be read and seen is reinforced by its presence on the screen. The agency of framing, setting aside, containment and dif- ferentiation tend to be ignored, as if of course the images simply appear . No one particularly pauses to ask how that happens or why they take the form they do. Calling these agential features back to attention reinforces a critical em- phasis on projection and construction, the way specific materialities enact different epistemological possibilities. The images from the JWST that circulated in popular and mass media may have been a by-product of scientif- ic inquiry , not its central document, but still, they say a great deal about knowledge production and transmission. Though these are not images of direct optical observation, THE MA TERIALITY OF MODERNISMS 36 but constructions mediated according to specifics of ma - terial modality , what they do is perform a public display of knowledge as aligned with photorealistic fantasy . Modernism inherits much of what we believe about ma- teriality from longer traditions of empirical imaging, and our contemporary sensibility is readily engaged by the aesthetics of screen ideology . Clearly , photographic codes still prevail in the presentation of what passes for “real- ism” in popular and scholarly imagination. Curiously , one interesting point about the processed data and signals from which these images were produced is that the JWST visualizations are historical images , they are the image of recovery of an ancient past made ‘ visible’ from old light. Rather than being unmediated or immediate images of transcription, they are the made-present constructions of an ancient event brought forward across enormous dis- tances of time and space. As to materiality in this context, it participates in the continued modern ideology in which somehow material is taken to be self-identical and self-evident, which, as this case should make clear , it is emphatically not. Material ideology extends the modern framework into the contem- porary arena long after it has been shown to be a belief system fraught with illusion and delusion. Returning our attention to materiality brings the constructed-ness of knowledge into focus, not as an abstraction, but in all of its detail as a lifecycle of decisions and interpretations within a process of production. Oddly , this critical stance is still very much a part of the modern sensibility and its critical positions that see a value in revealing the workings of the ideological apparatus. SEEING THE SCREEN 37 Bibliography Roland Barthes, “The Photographic Message”, in A Barthes Reader , ed. Susan Sontag (New Y ork: Hill and W ang, 1961): 194-210. Karen Barad, Meeting the Universe Halfway (Raleigh, NC: Duke University Press, 2007). Matthew Kirschenbaum, Mechanisms: New Media and the For ensic Imagination (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2007). Jane Bennett, V ibrant Matter (Raleigh, NC: Duke University Press, 2010). Alexander Bertland, Giambattista V ico , Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy . https://iep.utm.edu/vico/#H4. Theresa Hak Kyung Cha (ed.), Apparatus (New Y ork: T anam Press, 1980). Johanna Drucker , The V isible W or d: Experimental T ypography and Modern Art 1909-1923 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994). _________ “Digital Ontologies: The Ideality of Form in/and Code Storage–or–Can Graphesis challenge Mathesis”, Leonar do #2, 34, 2002: 141-145. _________ “A Review of Matthew Kirschenbaum’ s Mechanisms: New Media and the For ensic Imagination ”, DHQ , 2009, V olume 3 Number 2. Mechanisms (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2007). https://www .digitalhumanities.org/dhq/ vol/3/2/000048/000048.html. _________ Graphesis (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2014). Kate LaRue, “Nearly a million miles away , the James W ebb Space T elescope just took a picture”, NY T imes Magazine (November 5, 2023). https://www .nytimes.com/interacti- ve/2023/1 1/05/magazine/james-webb-space-telescope.html. Jim Green interview with Joe Depasquale, Gravity Assist : Season 5, Ep. 30: “How we make W ebb and Hubble Images” (July 8, 2022). https://www .nasa.gov/podcasts/gravity-assist/ gravity-assist-how-we-make-webb-and-hubble-images/. Peter Galison, “How do you Photograph a Black Hole?” (May 17, 2021). https://www .moma.org/magazine/articles/563 . Ernst Gombrich, Art and Illusion (New Y ork: Pantheon Press, Bollingen Series, 1960). THE MA TERIALITY OF MODERNISMS 38 Erkki Huhtamo and Jussi Parikka (eds.), Media Ar chaeology: Appr oaches, Applications, and Implications (Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press, 201 1). Matthew Kirschenbaum, Mechanisms: New Media and the For ensic Imagination (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2007). Allan Sekura, “The Body and the Archive”, The Body 24, 1986. DOI:10.4324/9781315242002-17. Other r efer ences James W ebb Space T elescope, NASA. https://www .nasa. gov/image-article/nasas-webb-reveals-cosmic-clif fs-glitte - ring-landscape-of-star -birth/. James W ebb Space T elescope, NASA. https://www .jwst. nasa.gov/content/about/innovations/infrared.html. National Radio Astronomy Observatory . https://public.nrao. edu/telescopes/radio-telescopes/. Chandra x-ray Observatory , About Chandra . https://chandra. harvard.edu/about/. RE -READING , RE -THINKING Diogo M ar q ues A DREAM OF TRANSP ARENCY VS. A DESIRE FOR OP ACITY : DIGIT AL LITERA TURE ’S SELF- REFLEXIVE CRITIQUE THROUGH GLASSY SURF ACES 1 0 was to come in an hour . I felt pleasantly and beneficially excited. At home I step - ped hurriedly into the office, handed in my pink coupon, and received the certificate permitting me to lower the shades. This right is granted only on sexual days. At all other times we live behind our transparent walls that seem woven of gleaming air – we are always visible, always washed in light. W e have nothing to conceal from one another . Besides, this makes much easier the difficult and noble task of the Guardians. For who knows what might happen other wise? Perhaps it was preci- sely those strange, opaque dwellings of the ancients that gave rise to their paltry cage psychology . “My (sic!) home is my cast- le!” What an idea! Y evgeny Zamyatin, We (1921) ‘W elcome to the Glass Age’ Starting in 201 1, the corporation known as Corning, specializing in glass production, initiated a campaign by releasing a series of video advertisements on Y ouT ube. 1 T o the memory of Branden Hookway (1971-2021). THE MA TERIALITY OF MODERNISMS 48 unintentional opacity individuals might adopt as a form of self-protection or strategic positioning), and in what ways do they diverge from previous efforts to realize the omni - presence and clarity associated with glass as a medium? Modernist translucencies Considering that some architectural vocabulary is shared by both buildings and computers, and especially bearing in mind that glass is a material surface common to both, this amorphous solid is anything but innocuous. In Y evgeny Zamyatin’ s dystopic novel We (1921), for in- stance, buildings are depicted as completely transparent, and all private activity , including sexual relations, can be monitored at all times. However , despite the possibility of using curtains “for the sexual days”, the very fact of using curtains enables everyone to know what is happen- ing inside walls, not to mention the control of those days by the government. Similarly , a century later , multi-touch devices now congregate all the potentialities that modern architecture envisioned as futuristic: transmission, reflec - tion, diffraction, or refraction of light, as well as resist - ance, and lightness, among other characteristics. In fact, the so-called Glass Age gained momentum through these promises of translucency . A DREAM OF TRANSP ARENCY VS. A DESIRE FOR OP ACITY 49 Figure 1 | Front page of “ Keppler Glass Constructions ” catalog (1914). Source: Internet Archive (archive.or g). Public Domain. Notwithstanding, there was always a catch that came with these, easily illustrated by the move from small trans- parent surfaces in the shape of windows, to lar ge opaque panes of dark glass. According to Mark Hansen, glass, as a “preeminent technology of modernist architecture […] THE MA TERIALITY OF MODERNISMS 50 has opened the path to our massively surveillant society” 9 , a premise that was already latent in Marshall McLuhan’ s considerations on the “reason why the story of glass is so closely related to the history of housing” 10 . Additionally , in W alter Benjamin’ s 1935 exposé , “Paris, the Capital of the Nineteenth Century” 11 , the ubiquity of glass emer ges as a bur geoning reality , despite earlier conceptions of it as utopian. In turn, Benjamin’ s perspective on glass was pro- foundly influenced by Paul Scheerbart’ s Glass Ar chitectur e (1914), a historical account that is noteworthy to revisit: If we want our culture to rise to a higher level, we are obliged, for better or for worse, to change our architec- ture. And this only becomes possible if we take away the closed character from the rooms in which we live. W e can only do that by introducing glass architecture, which lets in the light of the sun, the moon, and the stars, not merely through a few windows, but through every possible wall, which will be made entirely of glass – of coloured glass. The new environment, which we thus create, must bring us a new culture. 12 Hence, one may question: is this the beginning of a dream for transparency? Or , a more translucent one in be- tween transparent and opaque surfaces? 9 Mark B. N. Hansen, Bodies in Code: Interfaces with Digital Media (London: Routledge, 2006), 214. 10 McLuhan, Understanding Media: Extensions of Man . 11 W alter Benjamin et al ., The W ork of Art in the Age of Its T echnological Repr oducibility , and Other W ritings on Media , ed. Michael W . Jennings et al . (Harvard University Press, 2008). 12 Paul Scheerbart, Glass Ar chitectur e (excerpt), 1914. https://arch5541.files.wordpress.com/201 1/08/sheerbart-glass_ architecture.pdf. A DREAM OF TRANSP ARENCY VS. A DESIRE FOR OP ACITY 51 Figure 2 | Glass reflecting glass. Isola, Milan (2016). Courtesy of Ana M. García. It is not a challenging proposition to envision an im- pending future characterized by a predominance of glass, existing along a spectrum of varying degrees of transpar - ency and opacity . What also remains unequivocal is the transformative capacity of glass, capable of altering our interaction with the world, exemplified by its pivotal role in optical fiber technology . Furthermore, glass profoundly influences the way we perceive and engage with the exter - nal environment, accounting for its historical significance in both industrial applications and the creative endeav- ors of early twentieth-century artists. W ithin the annals of avant-garde exhibition catalogs and manifestos, glass consistently emer ges as a favored material, adaptable in numerous configurations. Notable among these references is the T echnical Manifesto of Futurist Sculptur e penned by Umberto Boccioni in 1912, in which the Italian Futurist refers to glass, among other materials, as an instrumen- tal means to translate “those atmospheric planes that link and intersect things” into a “new plastic art” that refuses THE MA TERIALITY OF MODERNISMS 52 “the wholly literary and traditional nobility of marble and bronze” 13 . However , when considering the utilization of glass by the early avant-gardes, Marcel Duchamp’ s La mariée mise à nu par ses célibatair es, même (1915-1923), commonly referred to as The Lar ge Glass , emerges as a preeminent work. Ranking as one of Duchamp’ s most cap- tivating creations, characterized by its notable reliance on glass as its main material, for Calvin T omkins, Duchamp’ s choice was underpinned by both practical and ideologi- cal factors. On the one hand, Duchamp recognized that “painting on glass could be sealed hermetically , which would prevent or at least delay the gradual oxidation that causes pigments to fade and change color”. On the oth- er hand, his motivation was also rooted in an idealistic drive. Having become less and less interested in what he called “retinal art”, his diminishing interest in “art for the eye alone” coexisted with his determination to erase all traces of “the artist’ s personal touch” 14 .Y et, regarding the use of glass as an alternative surface to canvas, in Alice Goldfarb Marquis’ biography of the artist, The Bachelor Stripped Bar e , there is a slightly different story being told. Establishing a connection between Duchamp and the Czech painter Frank Kupka, Marquis states that, not only was Kupka the neighbor of two of Duchamp’ s brothers, but he also saw glass (particularly stained glass) as “the best solution for what he was seeking”, hence, serving as an influence on Duchamp’ s own work 15 . 13 Umberto Boccioni, T echnical Manifesto of Futurist Sculptur e , in Futurism: An Anthology , eds. Lawrence Rainey , Christine Poggi and Laura W ittman (New Haven: Y ale University Press, 2009 [1912]): 1 14-1 18. 14 Calvin T omkins, The W orld of Mar cel Duchamp (New Y ork: T ime-Life Books, 1966), 34. 15 Alice Goldfarb Marquis, Mar cel Duchamp: The Bachelor Stripped Bar e (Boston: MF A Publications, 2002): 39-60. A DREAM OF TRANSP ARENCY VS. A DESIRE FOR OP ACITY 53 Regardless of the potential materialities surrounding its history , being less transparent than it is translucent, The Lar ge Glass reveals a multidimensional complexity invit - ing contemplation of the interplay of surfaces facilitated by the material at hand. Observing the glass, one can dis- cern the interlocking “cogs” designed by Duchamp to set the mechanisms in motion, alongside the amalgamation of one’ s own reflection with the space situated both in front of and behind the glass planes. However , the question aris- es as to whether it is feasible to transcend these vitreous layers of translucent surface. As Edward Shanken posited, the Lar ge Glass is an artwork that “resists a consistently transparent view because it includes the reflection of the observer and his or her environment in its image” 16 . If we extrapolate this analysis to the glassy surfaces of a device like an iPad, it raises the possibility that, in a parallel man- ner , all interactions are destined to occur within the screen, which functions as “the site of interaction and negotiation for meaning” 17 . This perspective is consistent with what Roy Ascott refers to as “screens of operations”, as opposed to “screens of representation” 18 , counterpointing the idea of ‘retinal art’, it being possible to claim that most screen displays tend toward visual representations that are retinal rather than procedural. And apart from a few exceptions, screens have been predominantly ‘places of representa- tion’ rather than ‘fields of operation’, wherein the trans - parency provided by their glassy surfaces frequently has its corollary in the retinal display of images that attempt to substitute our optical perception of the world. In other 16 Edward A. Shanken, “From Cybernetics to T elematics: The Art, Pedagogy , and Theory of Roy Ascott”, in T elematic Embrace: V isionary Theories of Art, T echnology , and Consciousness , ed. Roy Ascott (Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press, 2003), 78. 17 Shanken, “From Cybernetics to T elematics”, 235. 18 Shanken, “From Cybernetics to T elematics”, 235. THE MA TERIALITY OF MODERNISMS 54 words, where there is a promise of transparency , there is also a promise of conver gence between technical image and perceived image. In short, this is the essence of the perfect cybor g human-machine interface, where inter(sur) faces are coupled into a single perceptual system, an exter - nalized body internalized as a natural interface. Interestingly , while the effort to establish a unifying in - terface for human perception, encapsulated in the screen as the ultimate interface (where everything has to happen transparently in the blink of an eye), could be identified as a rationale behind an instrumentalization, Erkki Huhtamo highlights that the aspiration for transparency can be traced back to the nineteeth century when the screen func- tioned as a concealment, obscuring the concealed mecha- nisms and artifices deployed to conjure various phenom - ena 19 . Nevertheless, irrespective of its historical lineage, the advent of the Graphic User Interface (GUI), notably propelled by Mark W eiser ’ s visionary concept of the ‘Computer for the twenty-first Century’ 20 at Xerox P ARC, has significantly reinforced this ethos of transparency . This transitional phase, influenced by pioneers such as Douglas Engelbart, Ivan Sutherland, and Allan Kay , ushered in a novel paradigm of computing and interface design, one that did not preclude the pursuit to render these elements imperceptible to the user 21 . 19 Erkki Huhtamo, “Elements of Screenology: T oward an Archaeology of the Screen”, ICONICS: International Studies of the Modern Image (T okyo: The Japan Society of Image Arts and Sciences, 2004), vol.7: 31-82, 35-36. 20 https://ics.uci.edu/~corps/phaseii/W eiser -Computer21 stCentury-SciAm.pdf [accessed 20 may 2024]. 21 Hiroshi Ishii and Brygg Ullmer , “T angible bits: to- wards seamless interfaces between people, bits and atoms”, in Pr oceedings of the ACM SIGCHI Confer ence on Human factors in computing systems (ACM: 1997): 234-241, 235. A DREAM OF TRANSP ARENCY VS. A DESIRE FOR OP ACITY 55 By the end of the twentieth century though, a trans- formative shift emer ged in leading research, emphasiz- ing the pursuit of tangibility and immediate interaction through the advent of haptic interfaces. This marked an effort to counterbalance the prevailing paradigm of hu - man-machine interaction, which, as Johanna Drucker con- tends, was launched and nourished by the “engineering community”, completely infused with visual metaphors, and “based on dubious binarisms”, ultimately leading to the proclamation of the immateriality of the digital “by theorists and practitioners of hypertext and electronic writing” 22 . In this context, the T angible Media Group (TMG) at the MIT Media Laboratory , a prominent computer science research laboratory in 1997, recognized the gap between “cyber -space and the physical environment”, namely by proposing the minimization of this disparity by render - ing digital information tangible. This entailed a deliber- ate shift towards tangibility along two fundamental axes: “our skins/bodies” and “the physical environments we in- habit” 23 . However , it is worth noting that even these new concepts, such as TMG’ s “T angible Bits”, were still influ - enced by a specific rhetoric of transparency that had been predominantly inspired by W eiser ’ s vision 24 . And one that has inadvertently accentuated the primacy of vision over other sensory modalities, mirroring what W endy Chun characterizes as a “compensatory gesture” in response to the prevailing prominence of transparency within product design and scholarly discourse: 22 Johanna Drucker , “Performative Materiality and Theoretical Approaches to Interface”, DHQ: Digital Humanities Quarterly 7.1 (2013). 23 Ishii and Ullmer , “T angible bits”, 235. 24 Ishii and Ullmer , “T angible bits”, 236. THE MA TERIALITY OF MODERNISMS 56 As our machines increasingly read and write without us, as our machines become more and more unreadable, so that seeing no longer guarantees knowing (if it ever did), we the so-called users are offered more to see, more to read. The computer – that most nonvisual and nontrans- parent device – has paradoxically fostered “visual cul - ture” and “transparency”. 25 As ubiquitous computing seamlessly integrated into our daily lives, the paradox of opacity and transparency grew even more pronounced, acquiring an increasingly capti- vating allure. The advent of advanced digital technology , with a primary focus on enhancing haptic features, along- side promises of immediate and intimate experiences, paradoxically introduced a fresh set of visual metaphors, including but not limited to terms like digital footprints, thresholds, digits, smoothness, roughness, tracks, and traces, all employed to describe our interactions with dig- ital media. Thus, as the discourse shifts from the realm of transparent and opaque qualities to concepts like smooth and rough animations, layers, or transitions, a latent visual metaphor invariably influences the intended meanings. In other words, whenever smooth interfaces are mentioned, it will probably be as a synonym for transparency , imper - ceptibility , and automation, also often being a synonym for tangibility – a tendency that Alexander Galloway con - siders to be related to a constant search for ‘virtuosic im- mersion and connectivity’, in such a way that “these trans- parent and ubiquitous thresholds become simultaneously invisible and inoperable” 26 . 25 W endy Hui Kyong Chun, “On Software, or the Persistence of V isual Knowledge”, Gr ey Room 18 (Grey Room Inc. and MIT : 2004): 26-51, 27. 26 Alexander R. Galloway , The Interface Effect (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2012), 25. A DREAM OF TRANSP ARENCY VS. A DESIRE FOR OP ACITY 57 In Interface Criticism (201 1) 27 , a compilation of essays dedicated to the examination of human-computer interfac - es, Andersen and Pold assert that a comprehensive explo - ration of the interface necessitates delving “beyond” the computer ’ s superficial layer , reaching “back” into histo - ry , “through” to encompass the realm of human sensory experiences and perception, as well as reaching “behind” the abstract concept of the interface, going “down” into the inner workings of the machine, and finally stretching “out” into the broader domains of society and culture 28 . W ithin the framework of these inquiries, or more appropri- ately , investigative gestures, the focus revolves around the concept of human perception and its pivotal role in com- prehending the manifestation of these visual metaphors. In this regard, Andersen and Pold are poignant: not only does “the appearance and cultural diffusion of interfaces affect the way the world is perceived and sensed”, making human-computer interfaces “an input/output device where humans exist in a symbiosis with the cybernetic system of the computer” 29 , but furthermore, according to Pold, they are based on a “double sensory process” entailing “a con- temporary relationship between interface and perception”, in which “perception becomes mediated and cybernet- ic” 30 . Hence, for Pold, interfaces operate bidirectionally , 27 Another significant and up-to-date contribution to re - search on digital interfaces and its viral and current impact on cultural platforms is Andersen and Pold’ s The Metainterface: The Art of Platforms, Cities, and Clouds (The MIT Press, 2021). 28 Christian Ulrik Andersen and Søren Bro Pold, “Introduction”, in Interface Criticism: Aesthetics Beyond Buttons , eds. C. U. Andersen and S. B. Pold (Aarhus: Aarhus University Press, 201 1): 7-18, 1 1. 29 Andersen and Pold, “Introduction”: 7-18, 1 1. 30 Søren Bro Pold, “Interface Perception”, in Interface Criticism: Aesthetics Beyond Buttons , eds. C. U. Andersen and S. B. Pold (Aarhus: Aarhus University Press, 201 1): 91-1 13, 109. THE MA TERIALITY OF MODERNISMS 64 Bruno Nadeau’ s P .o.E.M.M. project 46 . When asked how he perceived the increase of tactile/haptic processes through multi-touch devices (and as a result, of electronic litera- ture metamedially exploring the intensification of these processes, in the context of all the artwork and research undertaken by the Obx Labs since their first artistic ex - periments), his answer proved to be extremely pragmatic. He claimed that such an increase naturally followed the availability of these devices on the market, an opportunity he and his team believed met their demands. Making use of the intimacy enabled by the iPad’ s portability and scale (“It wasn’t small enough to fit into my pocket, but it was still mine, it still felt intimate”), Jason Lewis spoke of the iPad and its “intimate experience” as the better technolog - ical option to deal with poetry . His pragmatism, howev- er , reveals more than a mere technological status quo and trendy features, evident in his equation of poetry and in- timacy . He points less to a necessary relation between the iPad and poetry , than to a certain idea of poetry , directly connected to a historical and cultural model of intimacy . This inturn is associated with a particular reading habitus that was already provided by pocket books from both man- uscript and typographic cultures. Nonetheless, without bringing attention to all kinds of artistic experimentation focused on multisensory percep - tion, perhaps their difference lies less in the “active phys - icality” and in its supposed individualization, “marketed as a more personal computing experience than the ‘per - sonal’ computer has ever conveyed” 47 than in the mate - rialities of the text conveyed by the device, and critically 46 More information available online at: https://www .po- emm.net/ [accessed 20 may 2024]. 47 Anastasia Salter , “Convergent Devices, Dissonant Genres: T racking the ‘Future’ of Electronic Literature on the iPad”, Electr onic Book Review , 2015. http://www .electronic- bookreview .com/thread/electropoetics/conver gent. A DREAM OF TRANSP ARENCY VS. A DESIRE FOR OP ACITY 65 and aesthetically appropriated as poetic signifiers. As John Cayley states: W e speak of the ‘materiality of the text’ or the ‘material - ity of language’ in general, as if this might be an abstract characteristic when, in fact, it is the critical marker of linguistic and literary embodiment, recognizable only in terms of that embodiment. As N. Katherine Hayles puts it, “ The materiality of an embodied text is the interac- tion of its physical characteristics with its signifying strategies ”. 48 Emphasizing “the materialities of text” that are not in - herent to the device, but which result from working with the device, is precisely what defines Jason E. Lewis and Bruno Nadeau’ s P .o.E.M.M. Cycle project (P .o.E.M.M. standing for “Poetry for Excitable [Mobile] Media”). However , this series of poems is not just mobile in the sense of mobile screens, but also by taking into account its exhibition on lar ge-scale surfaces (some of which are accompanied by poetic performances by Jason E. Lewis), as well as large printworks. All of these different instantia - tions of the P .o.E.M.M . project, represent the authors’ work in the context of the W riting Complex , a branch of the ObX Labs, “focused on creating work that consciously exercis - es different affordances of the digital media environment as core components of the meaning-making dimensions of the texts” 49 . As a result, one of its variants was the creation of apps for the iPad, enabling the exploration of the affor - dances of this device. Being freely available almost in its 48 John Cayley , “W riting on complex surfaces”, Dichtung Digital. Journal für Kunst und Kultur digitaler Medien , 7.2 (2005). DOI: http://dx.doi.or g/10.25969/mediarep/17687 . 49 Jason E. Lewis and Bruno Nadeau, “Project Statement”, in P .o.E.M.M. , 2014. http://www .poemm.net/about/research. html. THE MA TERIALITY OF MODERNISMS 66 entirety , according to Lewis, this was not an easy project, since Apple initially refused to buy the argument of the project being geared towards poetic experimentation and creative investigation. Considering it was a new market and way of commodifying symbolic production at its most basic levels, Apple’ s relentlessly commercial rationale did not fit entirely with ObX Labs’ s vision regarding the inti - macy that “the combination of touch interaction and port- ability” could allow users to experience 50 . Nevertheless, perhaps in the end Apple preferred to ignore the issue, opt- ing to release the code for the apps under an open-source license. Despite these incongruities, as Lewis explains, the affordances of the iPad, namely intimacy and migration, “will lead to new forms of media that will ultimately com- pel, provoke and delight”. This connection between the notions of ‘migration’ and ‘intimacy’ are the two sustain- ing pillars of the interrelationship between form and con- tent that each one of the P .o.E.M.M .’ s self-reflexive nature is able to express. T aking Jason E. Lewis’ biography into account is perhaps the best way to come to the realization as to why the aforementioned tropes are so highly signif- icant in the context of his (art)work. As Lewis states, the genesis of The P .o.E.M.M. Cycle: [L]ies in documents filed in a 1956 Louisiana court case ( Gr een v . City of New Orleans ) seeking to ascertain an adopted child’ s racial classifications. The judge claimed that the proper identification of the child’ s race was “vi - tal to the general public welfare”, or in other words, that however the child’ s race was classified, a wrong clas - sification could endanger the fundamental fabric of the dominant society . 50 Jason E. Lewis, P .o.E.M.M. The Album. 2nd ed, 2015, 9. http://www .poemm.net/website/PoEMM_The_2nd_Album.pdf . A DREAM OF TRANSP ARENCY VS. A DESIRE FOR OP ACITY 67 That claim seems cartoonishly hyperbolic, until I re- mind myself that I was adopted only eleven years later in 1967, as a Cherokee/Hawaiian/Samoan boy who was given a loving home by a White family from rural north- ern California. The cartoonish aspects then pale next to the insidious implications of what that meant at that time, and in that place. 51 Adding these facts regarding Lewis’ personal life to his professional life as an artist, poet, software developer , educator , and designer – all of these categories culminat- ing in his work as Director of the Obx Labs, a laboratory for Experimental Media specifically focused in providing “both the inspiration and the means for others to push the boundaries of computationally-based expression” 52 , – can perhaps be a good way to understand why intimacy is so closely related with migration. David Jhave Johnston bril- liantly sums up the intricacies of such plot, especially con- cerning to Lewis’ relationship with digital poetry: When an outsider -insider arrives in a discipline such as poetry , refertilisation occurs at material and practical lev- els. Digital poetry is the classic outsider -insider: a tech- no-art at the core of a societal transformation, perceived as a barbarian by classic literature. Jason is both inside that transformation and outside it: as software engineer and Indigenous artist, his presence complicates what is already a turbulent transition. 53 51 Jason E. Lewis, P .o.E.M.M. The Album. 2nd ed, 2015, 74. http://www .poemm.net/website/PoEMM_The_2nd_Album.pdf . 52 Obx Labs statement available online at: https://www . obxlabs.net/ [accessed 20 May 2024]. 53 David Jhave Johnston, “In Praise of the Outside: the P .o.E.M.M. s as Pioneers”, in P .o.E.M.M. The Album , ed. J. E. Lewis, 2nd ed, 2015, 97. http://www .poemm.net/website/ PoEMM_The_2nd_Album.pdf. THE MA TERIALITY OF MODERNISMS 68 It is also in this sense that “the visual and tactile inter - activity of the P .o.E.M.M. s demand a different category of cognitive effort than reading lineated verse; touch rede - fines relations to reading into a most intimate action” 54 . By taking a closer look at the P .o.E.M.M . apps, we will find that Speak – the iPad app for What They Speak When They Speak to Me (2007) 55 – emulates difficulties in communication, mistaken identities, and the confusion that these situations can generate. From an initial experi - ence of seemingly scattered letters across the screen, the reader can generate lexias by dragging a finger across the screen, an action that highlights several letters and creates sentences along a moving line. A more prolonged drag- ging of one’ s finger enables a longer reading of the several sentences that compose the poem’ s textual database 56 . If on the other hand the dragging stops, the letters go back to their scattered form. Since the volatile nature of these lines is emblematic of the inconstancy of “lines of com- munication”, as ar gued by Lewis, this volatility also high- lights the “necessity for intense concentration such efforts require” 57 . Given the required interaction with the iPad’ s screen interface, the P .o.E.M.M. s highlight the necessity of mov- ing and changing pre-given configurations in order to keep 54 Johnston, “In Praise of the Outside: the P .o.E.M.M. s as Pioneers”, 97. 55 https://poemm.net/projects/speak.html [accessed 20 May 2024]. 56 The textual and fixed linear versions of all the po - ems were compiled by Jason Edward Lewis in P .o.E.M.M. The Album , a collection of the work around the P .o.E.M.M. project. More information on the Album, available online at: https://po- emm.net/about/album.html [accessed 20 May 2024]. 57 Jason E. Lewis, “Project Statement”, in What They Speak When They Speak to Me , 2007. http://www .poemm.net/ projects/speak.html. A DREAM OF TRANSP ARENCY VS. A DESIRE FOR OP ACITY 69 on reading . Choice – the app for No Choice About the T erminology (2013) 58 – is another P .o.E.M.M. highly rep- resentative of these strategies of affect and signification. The reader has to find her way through a red background in which lines of text are constantly frenzied, making it impossible to read the poem in its entirety . T apping on these lines slows them down, only to realize that while we may sometimes feel that “though we might have some choice about our terminology , we have no choice about our ontology” 59 . The same goes for language. Since this rhetoric of interaction used by the authors in order to de- scribe their artwork is influential on both the discourse on digital media and the discourse on literary practices, it is significant to raise the question as to how the poems are more or less than the apps. Considering the exploration of the interface’ s expressiveness operates within the same dialectic between opacity and transparency that defines the instantaneity of touch and the hapticity of both device and apps, it appears that, although the poems can have a life of their own outside the device enclosing them, the fact that they rely on the use of this specific medium turns it into a different artifact, which has to be understood in light of a metamedial poetics that is part of the artwork. Contrary to what large corporations like Apple offer us, in terms of making software and hardware disappear from our eyes, the disruptiveness purposed by Lewis and Nadeau in the app versions of The P .o.E.M.M. Cycle does exactly the opposite: the more we touch, the more we are told. Such revelations are part of any form of reading, but in this case, the reading experience is enabled through one of the most intimate gestures: touching – touching words waiting to be touched – these words and gestures being 58 A vailable online at: https://poemm.net/projects/choice. html [accessed 20 May 2024]. 59 A vailable online at: https://poemm.net/projects/choice. html [accessed 20 May 2024]. THE MA TERIALITY OF MODERNISMS 70 that which turns a seemingly mere piece of glass and cold metal into an extremely intimate device specifically de - signed with our fingers in mind 60 . Bibliography Christian Ulrik Andersen and Søren Bro Pold, “Introduction”, in Interface Criticism: Aesthetics Beyond Buttons , eds. C. U. Andersen and S. B. Pold (Aarhus: Aarhus University Press, 201 1): 7-18. _________, The Metainterface: The Art of Platforms, Cities, and Clouds (The MIT Press, 2021). 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Hiroshi Ishii and Brygg Ullmer , “T angible bits: towards seamless interfaces between people, bits and atoms”, in Pr oceedings of the ACM SIGCHI Confer ence on Human factors in computing systems (ACM: 1997): 234-241. David Jhave Johnston, “In Praise of the Outside: the P .o.E.M.M. s as Pioneers”, in P .o.E.M.M. The Album , ed. J. E. Lewis, 2nd ed., 2015. http://www .poemm.net/website/PoEMM_ The_2nd_Album.pdf. Paul Levinson, Digital McLuhan: a Guide to the Information Millenium (London & New Y ork: Routledge, 1999). Jason E. Lewis, P .o.E.M.M. The Album , 2nd ed., 2015. http:// www .poemm.net/website/PoEMM_The_2nd_Album.pdf. _____ “Project Statement”, in What They Speak When They Speak to Me , 2007. http://www .poemm.net/projects/speak.html. THE MA TERIALITY OF MODERNISMS 72 Jason E. Lewis and Bruno Nadeau, “Project Statement”, in P .o.E.M.M , 2014. http://www .poemm.net/about/research.html. Diogo Marques, “Reading digits: haptic reading processes in the experience of digital literary works” (Doctoral Thesis in the Materialities of Literature: University of Coimbra, 2018). https://hdl.handle.net/10316/81 171. Alice Goldfarb Marquis Mar cel Duchamp: The Bachelor Stripped Bar e (Boston: MF A Publications, 2002). Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media: Extensions of Man , 1964. http://lab404.com/142/understanding_media.html. Søren Bro Pold, “Interface Perception”, in Interface Criticism: Aesthetics Beyond Buttons , eds. C. U. Andersen and S. B. Pold (Aarhus: Aarhus University Press, 201 1): 91-1 13. Manuel Portela, Scripting Reading Motions: The Codex and the Computer as Self-Reflexive Machines (Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2013). _____ “Um Dia Feito de V idro”, Cadernos Mil Planaltos. ed. 1 (Coimbra: CIAS-Centro de Investigação em Antropologia e Saúde, 2012): 6-21. _____ “Imagina o que é capturar o mundo com uma câmara digital”, Cadernos Mil Planaltos , ed. 1 (Coimbra: CIAS-Centro de Investigação em Antropologia e Saúde, 2012): 22-31. Anastasia Salter , “Convergent Devices, Dissonant Genres: T racking the ‘Future’ of Electronic Literature on the iPad”, Electr onic Book Review , 2015. http://www .electronicbookre- view .com/thread/electropoetics/conver gent. Edward A. Shanken, “From Cybernetics to T elematics: The Art, Pedagogy , and Theory of Roy Ascott”, in T elematic Embrace: V isionary Theories of Art, T echnology , and Consciousness , ed. Roy Ascott (Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press, 2003). Paul Scheerbat, Glass Ar chitectur e (excerpt), 1914. https:// arch5541.files.wordpress.com/201 1/08/ sheerbart-glass_archi - tecture.pdf. Calvin T omkins, The W orld of Mar cel Duchamp (New Y ork: T ime-Life Books, 1966). P ab lo S an ta Olalla FROM THE INOBJET ALES T OW ARDS A “ LANGUAGE OF ACTION ” . CLEMENTE P ADÍN AND HIS THEORETICAL- PRACTICAL CRITIQUE OF THE PROCESS OF DEMA TERIALIZA TION OF AR T DURING THE SEVENTIES Padín’ s experimental path acr oss some journals By the early 1960s, the Uruguayan ‘Generation of 45’ was well established and institutionalized in its country . It was an urban artistic and literary movement that had renewed the national cultural field by connecting it to the latest international trends. This ‘Generation of 45’ grew around the magazine Númer o (1949-1964), directed by Emir Rodríguez Monegal. He and other renowned writ- ers such as Mario Benedetti, Ángel Rama, Felisberto Hernández or Juan Carlos Onetti dominated the scene at the time 1 . Another magazine, Los Huevos del Plata 2 , appeared within this literary context. Its fourteen issues from 1965 1 Elvira Blanco, La cr eación de un imaginario: la ge- neración literaria del 45 en Uruguay (São Paulo: Universidade de São Paulo, 2006). Doctoral dissertation. A vailable in: https:// doi.or g/10.1 1606/T .8.2006.tde-08082007-140937 [Accessed 27 October 2023]. 2 The name of the magazine, Los Huevos del Plata , re- fers to the Río de la Plata, which flows into a wide estuary where the cities of Buenos Aires and Montevideo are located, one on each bank. The reference to the huevos , which literally means ‘eggs’, is not easy to translate. This word refers to the egg as a potential element, from which something new can be born. But THE MA TERIALITY OF MODERNISMS 80 victim killed by the police of Pacheco Areco’ s government in the social protests of Montevideo, in 1968. Areco had introduced repressive measures even before Bordaberry’ s coup d’état, in an attempt to calm the growing social insta- bility caused by the economic crisis of the time. This led to social support towards leftist insur gencies such as the MLN-T even before the Uruguayan dictatorship 11 . Padín’ s initiatives were part of this reaction to repression, espe- cially as it intensified under the dictatorship. Figure 2 | OVUM 10 , 7, 1969. Backcover and editorial. Courtesy of the artist. 11 Patricia Pinta, “Movimiento de Liberación Nacional- T upamaros (MLN-T)”, in Historia de las guerrillas en América Latina , eds. Jerónimo Ríos and José Manuel Azcona (Madrid: Libros de la catarata, 2019): 216-241, 231. FROM THE INOBJET ALES T OW ARDS A “LANGUAGE OF ACTION ” 81 After the ten issues of OVUM 10 , Padín continued his publishing project under the title OVUM . In addition to taking the form of a magazine, OVUM served as a plat- form for composing and internationally disseminating mail art proposals and conceptual experiences, both of his own and of colleagues from abroad 12 . However , resources were increasingly scarce, to the extent that Padín some- times depended on consignments of paper sent to him by his international contacts in order to publish some of these proposals: I then brought out a second period of OVUM, in a some- what novel form for the time: cooperative. I asked all my friends to send me five hundred sheets of paper , whatever they could, logically , in letter size, to my address. When I had ten or twelve packets, I would put together a pub- lication, put a couple of unprinted cardboard covers on it, because I didn’ t have any money , put two staples on it and the magazine was ready . 13 As can be seen, the contextual conditions affected Padín’ s artistic practices in the 1970s, not only themati- cally but also materially , in terms of their poor , self-pub- lished embodiments. However , and to sum up, it should be stressed that Padín’ s practices were structured around three main axes. First, the operation through international 12 Clemente Padín is considered one of the greatest expo- nents of Mail Art, not only in Latin America, but internationally; he is also a reference for his writings in which he explains this artistic phenomenon in a genealogical way . See Clemente Padín, “Arte Correo en Latinoamérica”, in Mail Art. La r ed eterna , ed. Pere Sousa (Sestao: La única puerta a la izquierda, 2010): 81-87. 13 Raúl Álvarez and Clemente Padín, Entr evista / Clemente Padín , online video recording, Y ouT ube, 15 March 2017, https:// www .youtube.com/watch?v=oO1JGgIYsvI [Accessed 27 October 2023]. THE MA TERIALITY OF MODERNISMS 82 information and solidarity networks. Second, the politici- zation of artistic and cultural practices. And third, this par - ticular evolution from experimental poetry with symbolic, visual and typographic games towards artistic practices of conceptualist orientation, articulated through the mail art networks. Fr om the Inobjetales towar ds a “language of action” The Inobjetales stand out among the mail art projects carried out by Padín in the early 1970s. These were a series of mailings to his international networks of contacts, in which the artist sought interaction with the receivers. This proposal for an Inobjetal art was propositional in nature. It presented a clear commitment to overcome the traditional assumptions about art, such as the uniqueness and mate- riality of the artwork, its tendency towards representation rather than presentation, and the one-way authorship em- anating from the artist to the public, or from the sender to the receiver in the process of artistic communication. T o begin with, it may be interesting to situate the Inobjetales within the framework of the theoretical-prac- tical process of ‘dematerialization’ of the work of art that took place between the 1960s and 1970s. W ithin the gene- alogy of Conceptual Art, such a process of ‘dematerializa- tion’ extended transnationally . It appeared synchronously in distant territories, surely aided by the connectivity of- fered by the increasingly accelerated exchange of ideas, people, and objects through the means of communication and transport in the context of the Cold W ar 14 . Perhaps the 14 Pablo Santa Olalla, “Jet Age Conceptualism. Alrededor del papel del transporte aéreo en la difusión del conceptualismo en el espacio sud-atlántico”, Revista de Estudios Globales y Arte Contemporáneo ( REG | AC ) 5.1 (2018): 305-340. A vailable in: https://doi.or g/10.1344/regac2018.1.1 1 [Accessed 27 October FROM THE INOBJET ALES T OW ARDS A “LANGUAGE OF ACTION ” 83 best known reference on the subject is the article “The Dematerialization of Art”, published by John Chandler and Lucy Lippard (1968). Nevertheless, the Argentinean psychoanalyst, art theorist, and artist Óscar Masotta (1967) had already spoken the previous year about this process towards the apparent dissolution of the art ob- ject to describe the Argentinean happenings. It is worth noting that Lippard visited Buenos Aires precisely at the time Masotta’ s theories appeared. So this circulation and exchange renders it difficult to draw quick assumptions about the North American or North Atlantic precedence of the concept of “dematerialization” 15 . In any case, we can delineate a specific Latin American genealogy of this ar - tistic process. Such lineage should include diverse theories and practices, ranging from Brazilian writer and art critic Ferreira Gullar ’ s (1959) “T eoria do não-objeto” [Theory of the non-object] to Peruvian-Mexican art critic Juan Acha’ s (1981: 138-189) ‘non-objectualisms’ in the 1980s. And of course, this genealogy must include Padín’ s Inobjetal art. The first of the four Padín’ s Inobjetales was sent to his mail art network at the beginning of 1971. Although some- how sexist 16 , it was a proposal that invited the reader – a 2023]; Pablo Santa Olalla, Del arte conceptual… ¿al arte obje- to? Conceptualismos en el eje Latinoamérica-España durante la Guerra Fría. (Madrid: Editorial CSIC, 2024). 15 Ana Longoni (ed.), “Oscar Masotta: vanguardia y revo- lución en los años sesenta”, in Óscar Masotta. Revolución en el arte , (Buenos Aires: Mansalva, 2017), 55. 16 As the author of this text, I must apologize for not ad - dressing the gender perspective in greater depth with respect to this work by Clemente Padín. However , for reasons of space and clarity I have chosen to focus on the analysis of the process of ‘demate - rialization’ of which this first Inobjetal is a key piece. References to the gender perspective in Mail Art can be found in some of my previous works, see Santa Olalla, “Jet Age Conceptualism” and Pablo Santa Olalla, “Comprender los medios de comunicación: las extensiones del Mail Art. Cómo los intercambios postales marcaron THE MA TERIALITY OF MODERNISMS 84 Figure 3 | Clemente Padín, Inobjetal 1 , 1971. Courtesy of the artist. el campo artístico sud-atlántico en la década de 1970”, in Redes transatlánticas. Intelectuales y artistas entr e América Latina y Eur opa durante la Guerra Fría , eds. V erónica Abrego and Thomas Bremer (Madrid/Frankfurt: Iberoamericana/V ervuert, 2023): 181- 204. A vailable in: https://doi.org/10.31819/9783968694665_007 [Accessed 27 October 2023]. FROM THE INOBJET ALES T OW ARDS A “LANGUAGE OF ACTION ” 85 male reader , perhaps? – to take action and reflect on some traditional postulates of art. Above this text was a drawing of female genitals: Put your finger in whatever you want… and feel the emp - tiness and frustration that awaits you behind the page. In no other way does art work. It gives you a substitute of re- ality so to run away from it. Art will be what you do con- cerning the environment and not what you do concerning a system representative of the same environment. 17 Through this mailing, Padín recognized the represent- ative illusion of art. But above all he invited the receiver to act, making him an active part of the communicative circuit of the project. Nevertheless, the proposal was al- ready completed with the dispatch, whether or not the ac- tion proposed by the artist was carried out. Inobjetal 1 still remained integrated and closed, predefined by the artist, who was well aware of this. For the next step, Inobjetal 2 , sent in May 1971, Padín invited the public to find a message hidden inside a stapled paper envelope. This improvised envelope was attached to a sheet of paper that read “forbidden” in several languag- es. In this case, the proposal was only completed when the recipient opened the envelope, skipping the printed com- mands to find the following text: If you read this note, you have understood * that you had acted on intervening on an object which its only purpose was to unchain the union thought/action; * that you adequately solved the pseudo-contradiction thought/action or act-conception/act-execution in spite of 17 Clemente Padín (ed.), OVUM 10 10 (1972). A vailable in: https://archive.or g/details/OVUM10n10 [Accessed 27 October 2023]. THE MA TERIALITY OF MODERNISMS 86 Figure 4 | Clemente Padín, Inobjetal 2 , 1971. Courtesy of the artist. FROM THE INOBJET ALES T OW ARDS A “LANGUAGE OF ACTION ” 87 the forbiddenness to do it; * that the act had liberated the tension that was the basis of the contradiction, and that the resolution is agreeable; * that in spite of the alienating power of the system that imposes the disunion of thought/action you can propose yourself and do some other acts which run against the system in the same way that you have not attended the “forbidden” order; […]. 18 For Padín, the artwork was no longer in the act of send- ing and receiving; apparently , not even in the materiality of the paper , the staples, and the ink. The significant core of the Inobjetal 2 laid in the fact that the person who re- ceived it could bypass a prohibition, enjoying the process and maybe reproducing it afterwards. Padín’ s practice thus acquired the triple qualification of propositional, ‘demate - rialized’, and activist. However , it was still regulated by the presence of the artist as the main agent proposing the action, in a unidirectional sense. Padín had not managed, at least for the moment, to rid himself of the hierarchies of the artistic communicative act. Padín’ s artistic drift, which had started from the recom- bination of typographic and visual elements in experimen- tal poetry , entered fully into the analytical terrain of the theory enacted through practice. In a tautological manner – a Conceptual Art strategy –, his mail art practice moved towards a reflection on his own activity . This revised pro - cedure of his own operational conditions was not free of contradictions. Padín did not hesitate to point out that among these contradictions, perhaps the most relevant one was the maintenance of the authority of the artist, which 18 Clemente Padín, De la r epr esentación a la acción (La Plata: Al Margen, 2010). This book is a translation and reprint of Clemente Padín, De la r eprésentation a l’action (Marseille: Éditions Polaires, 1975), 1 15-1 16. THE MA TERIALITY OF MODERNISMS 88 Figure 5 | Clemente Padín, Inobjetal 3 , 1971. Courtesy of the artist. FROM THE INOBJET ALES T OW ARDS A “LANGUAGE OF ACTION ” 89 prevented the complete dismantling of the traditional arti- stic communicational act. Another important discordance emer ged from the failed process of ‘dematerialization’ that the Inobjetales , despite their desire to become independent from the objectuality , were unable to complete. The Inobjetal 3 worked as a manifesto, which Padín sent to the mail art network in June 1971. In it, the artist gathered the ideas of the previous proposals and took them a step further . For the first time Padín displaced himself as the author of the artwork, as he asked the recipients to respond to a call for submissions. They had to send back their own Inobjetal art proposals, closing the commu- nicative circuit without the authorial pre-eminence of the Uruguayan artist. After making explicit a step from re p - r esentation to pr esentation , the text of Inobjetal 3 stated: The object, created in this aesthetic function, opposes the indissoluble unity art/life, it stands like a wall between man and his environment, and prevents him from a prop- er relationship: if he loves, he must love and not express it symbolically , using one, many or all the representa- tional systems at his disposal. By eliminating the object of art, art is transported to the point from which it should never have left, the unity , the thought/action synapse. Inobjetal art, by leaving aside the work, eliminates the other consequences: the use of the representative systems easily deformable by the “status” for its benefit or , in the best of cases, for the benefit of the author himself, eager to exercise the authority of his personal norms; and it will also eliminate the consumption of the work of art with all that it means of manipulation of consciences, of commer - cial activity , of amoral exhibitionism, of class privileges. The only stages that will be maintained in inobjetal art will be the conception or project; and the mechanism of execution; and everything that is presented as the product THE MA TERIALITY OF MODERNISMS 96 Naturally , many questions remain to be addressed. A more detailed analysis should delve deeper into Padín’ s connective capacity , and how this connectivity awakened an international wave of political solidarity , closely related to his poetic and artistic practices. T o conclude, howev- er , I would point to a final moment in this artist’ s career , one that is charged with bitter irony . His activity suffered a drastic and forced interruption, due to his imprisonment by the Uruguayan dictatorship in 1977, under the accu- sation of “mockery and vilification of the morale of the Armed Forces” 22 . As the seventies progressed, dictator- ships, repression and violence spread throughout the Latin American region, and Uruguay was not an exception, as indicated above when briefly contextualizing the 1973 coup d’état. This led to an escalation of the socio-political situation, for which the de facto authorities imposed a tight control of information and censorship. In this environ- ment, some of Padin’ s publications were captured by the regime. For example this one: Happy Bicentennial (1976), which describes how to make a bomb stuffed with flowers, to be sent to “any office on W all Street”. It was, of course, a call to action, somewhere between guerrilla warfare and a sarcastic joke. 22 Davis and Nogueira, “La nueva poesía y las redes alter - nativas”, 204. FROM THE INOBJET ALES T OW ARDS A “LANGUAGE OF ACTION ” 97 Figure 8 | Clemente Padín, Happy Bicentennial , 196. Courtesy of the artist. THE MA TERIALITY OF MODERNISMS 98 Padín’ s conviction by the Uruguayan dictatorial regime came about through the transformation of some of his artistic proposals, such as Happy Bicentennial , into ‘ev- idence’ for the trial (Nogueira 201 1). Strangely , the dicta- torial regime, which systematically disdained the arts and culture ‒ and especially the most experimental practices – did give value to Padín’ s artworks as accusatory evidence. As we can see, the ideologized proposals of this artist truly managed to have an impact on reality , as he himself had proposed on several occasions. However , they did so in the opposite direction of that expected, in a reactionary sense. Instead of bringing about a greater awareness and an im- provement in conditions, they were used to accuse the art- ist and imprison him. The artist spent two years in prison, sparking a wave of international solidarity that took shape through mail art networks. After his release, Padín spent a further five years under house arrest and was completely freed in 1984, shortly before the end of the dictatorship. Bibliography Juan Acha, Arte y sociedad: Latinoamérica. El pr oducto ar - tístico y su estructura (México: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1981). Raúl Álvarez and Clemente Padín, Entr evista / Clemente Padín , online video recording, Y ouT ube, 15 March 2017, https://www .youtube.com/watch?v=oO1JGgIYsvI [Accessed 27 October 2023]. Elvira Blanco, La cr eación de un imaginario: la generación literaria del 45 en Uruguay (São Paulo: Universidade de São Paulo, 2006 ). Doctoral dissertation. A vailable in: https://doi. or g/10.1 1606/T .8.2006.tde-08082007-140937 [Accessed 27 October 2023]. John Chandler and Lucy Lippard, “ The Dematerialization of Art”, Art International 12.2 (1968): 31-36. FROM THE INOBJET ALES T OW ARDS A “LANGUAGE OF ACTION ” 99 Fernando Davis and Fernanda Nogueira, “ La nueva poesía y las redes alternativas. Entrevista a Clemente Padín por Fernando Davis y Fernanda Nogueira”, Errata #2 (2010): 194-209. Juliane Debeusscher and Pablo Santa Olalla , Exposiciones de arte corr eo en el Estado Español, 1973-1981 , 2018. A vailable in: https://modernidadesdescentralizadas.com/gis/exposiciones- de-arte-correo-en-el-estado-espanol-1973-1981/ . [Accessed 27 October 2023]. GIS case study for the “Decentralized Modernities” research project. Ferreira Gullar (José Ribamar Ferreira) , “ T eoria do não-ob- jeto” , in Pr ojeto Construtivo Brasileir o na Arte: 1950 - 1962 , ed. Aracy Amaral (São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro: Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo and Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro, 1959 ): 85-94. A vailable in: https://icaadocs.mfah.or g/s/ en/item/1091374 [Accessed 27 October 2023]. Alfonso Lessa, Estado de Guerra. De la gestación del golpe de 1973 a la caída de Bor daberry (Montevideo: Fin de siglo, 1996). José Lezama Lima, La expr esión americana (Madrid: Alianza, 1969). Ana Longoni (ed.), “ Oscar Masotta: vanguardia y revolución en los años sesenta”, in Óscar Masotta. Revolución en el arte , (Buenos Aires: Mansalva, 2017): 7-67. Oscar Masotta, “ Después del pop: nosotros desmaterializa- mos” , in Oscar Masotta. Revolución en el arte , ed. Ana Longoni (Buenos Aires: Mansalva, 1967): 221-245. Fernanda Nogueira, “ El cuerpo político más allá de sus lí- mites. Clemente Padín y el flujo postal ” , in Artecorr eo , ed. Mauricio Marcín (México: RM V erlag, 201 1): 77-92. Clemente Padín, “Las convulsiones de Alicia”, Los Huevos del Plata , Último número, November 1969, n.p. A vailable in: https://archive.or g/details/LHdPUltimo [Accessed 27 October 2023]. —— (ed.), O VUM 10 1 (1969). A vailable in: https://archive. or g/details/OVUM10_1 [Accessed 27 October 2023]. —— (ed.), OVUM 10 7 (1971). A vailable in: https://archive. or g/details/OVUM10n7 [Accessed 27 October 2023]. —— (ed.), OVUM 10 10 (1972). A vailable in: https://ar- chive.or g/details/OVUM10n10 [Accessed 27 October 2023]. THE MA TERIALITY OF MODERNISMS 100 ——, De la r epr esentación a la acción. (La Plata: Al Margen, 2010) . This book is a translation and reprint of: Clemente Padín , De la r eprésentation a l’action (Marseille: Éditions Polaires, 1975). ——, “Arte Correo en Latinoamérica”, in Mail Art. La r ed eterna , ed. Pere Sousa (Sestao: La única puerta a la izquierda, 2010): 81-87. ——, Alicia en llamas , in Poesías completas , ed. Carlos Pineda (México: Ediciones del lirio, 2014): 56-76. Patrici a Pinta, “ Movimiento de Liberación Nacional- T upamaros (MLN-T)”, in Historia de las guerrillas en América Latina , eds. Jerónimo Ríos and José Manuel Azcona (Madrid: Libros de la catarata, 2019): 216-241. Pablo Santa Olalla, “ Jet Age Conceptualism. Alrededor del papel del transporte aéreo en la difusión del conceptualismo en el espacio sud-atlántico ”, Revista de Estudios Globales y Arte Contemporáneo (REG|AC) 5 .1 (2018): 305-340. A vailable in: https://doi.or g/10.1344/regac2018.1.1 1 [Accessed 27 October 2023]. ——, “ Comprender los medios de comunicación: las extensiones del Mail Art. Cómo los intercambios posta- les marcaron el campo artístico sud-atlántico en la década de 1970” , in Redes transatlánticas. Intelectuales y artistas en- tr e América Latina y Eur opa durante la Guerra Fría , eds. V erónica Abrego and Thomas Bremer (Madrid/Frankfurt: Iberoamericana/V ervuert, 2023): 181-204. A vailable in: https:// doi.or g/10.31819/9783968694665_007 [Accessed 27 October 2023]. ——, Del arte conceptual… ¿al arte objeto? Conceptualismos en el eje Latinoamérica-España durante la Guerra Fría. (Madrid: Editorial CSIC, 2024). Popp y S fa kian aki LA BÊTE NOIRE : A LITTLE MAGAZINE ON THE MARGINS OF SURREALISM In April 1935, art dealer Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler happily informed André Masson of the publication of a new little magazine named La Bête noir e , and told him of his hopes for ongoing success. Furthermore, Kahnweiler pointed out that Masson would be among the featured artists, since his work was appreciated by the magazine’ s editors, art critics Maurice Raynal and Tériade (the lat- ter was also publisher and art director of the art journal Minotaur e ) 1 . However , Masson’ s response was not as expected; he harshly attacked the magazine’ s editors, ex- pressing his disappointment at his friends Michel Leiris and Raymond Queneau, who had agreed to collaborate with them. Cette feuille ne me plaît pas du tout. Je regrette que Michel et Queneau qui sont mes amis se soient laissés 1 “J’ai montré hier vos toiles aux dirigeants de la Bête noire. Raynal et V itrac aiment beaucoup, comme moi, vos toiles récentes (Don Quichotte et les Marionnettes, Bacchanale, etc.). Il va de soi que vous serez parmi les peintres que cette Revue défendra” [Y esterday , I showed your paintings to the directors of Bête Noir e . Like me, Raynal and V itrac are very fond of your recent works (Don Quixote and the Marionettes, Bacchanalia, etc.). It goes without saying that you will be among the paint- ers that this journal will support]. Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler , letter to André Masson, 5 April 1935, in André Masson. Les années surréalistes: corr espondance 1916-1942 , ed. Françoise Levaillant (Paris: La Manufacture, 1990), 245. All translations are by the author except when stated otherwise. THE MA TERIALITY OF MODERNISMS 102 entraîner à collaborer à un petit journal dérisoire qui à part eux ne rassemble et ne rassemblera que des laissés- pour -compte du dadaïsme et du surréalisme, je les con- nais: poètes paresseux et critiques d’art à tout faire. Et quand Michel m’écrit que cette brillante cohorte s’est formée pour combattre l’Hydre du confusionnisme je suis navré. André Breton doit penser: cette “bête noire” n’est que “le Pou du Minotaure”! Il doit bien rire et avec raison. Bataille qui vient d’arriver à T ossa est tout à fait de mon avis et c’est ce qui me fait plaisir , parce que lor - sque l’on est seul à penser quelque chose on peut toujours être pris pour un fou. 2 [I don’ t like this periodical at all. I regret that Michel and Queneau, who are my friends, allowed themselves to be drawn into collaborating with a trivial little jour - nal which, apart from them, gathers and will continue to gather only the cast-offs of Dadaism and Surrealism—I know them: lazy poets and odd-job art critics. And when Michel writes to me that this brilliant cohort has come together to combat the Hydra of confusionism, I’m dis- mayed. André Breton must be thinking: this ‘black beast’ is nothing but ‘the Louse of Minotaur ’! He must be laughing—and with good reason. Bataille, who has just arrived in T ossa, totally agrees with me and that pleases me, because when one is alone in thinking something, one can always be taken for a madman]. Approaching ‘little magazines’ through Michael Levenson’ s perspective of a “micro-sociology of Modernist innovation, within which small groups of artists were able to create small flourishing communities based 2 André Masson, letter to Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler , in Levaillant (ed.), André Masson. Les années surréalistes , 249. L A BÊTE NOIRE 103 on the powers of reciprocal acknowledgment” 3 , recent scholarship has highlighted how ‘little magazines’ have functioned as vehicles for a plural expression of innova- tion and the multiple facets of modernism represented by diverse, yet entangled, networks of like-minded contrib- utors. Often they are ephemeral with a limited print run and poor print quality , mar ginal and noncommercial by intent. Nonetheless, they are addressed to a limited group of supportive readers, thanks to their often spontaneous, dynamic, experimental and unconventional character , as well as to their freedom from the interests and limitations of commercial publishers. These magazines may be taken to express the aesthetic, intellectual and political values and goals of the networks of their creators and contributors in a more ‘raw’ and authentic fashion than the ‘bigger ’ art magazines and journals 4 . ‘Little magazines’ were quite popular in interwar France. Richard Admussen lists 269 literary titles between 1914 and 1939, of which at least 80 were also art mag- azines 5 . Some of them represented a network of people 3 Michael Levenson, “Introduction”, in The Cambridge Companion to Modernism, ed. Michael Levenson (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999): 1-8, 6. 4 On little magazines, see Peter Brooker and Andrew Thacker (eds.), “General Introduction”, in The Oxfor d Cultural and Critical History of Modernist Magazines (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009-2013), I (2009): 1-16; Evanghelia Stead, “Reconsidering ‘Little’ versus ‘Big’ Periodicals”, Journal of Eur opean Periodical Studies 1.2 (W inter 2016): 1-17. https:// doi.or g/10.21825/jeps.v1i2.3860. 5 Richard L. Admussen, Les petites r evues littérair es (1914-1939): répertoir e descriptif (St. Louis: W ashington University Press - Paris: Librairie A. G. Nizet, 1970). Admussen writes in the preface that he modelled his book on Roméo Arbour ’ s Les r evues littérair es éphémèr es paraissant à Paris en- tr e 1900 et 1914: répertoir e descriptif (Paris: José Corti, 1956). The term ‘petites revues’ was introduced by Rémy de Gourmont, THE MA TERIALITY OF MODERNISMS 104 who were closely related to a specific aesthetic trend, such as cubism and futurism ( SIC, Nor d-Sud, L ’élan ), dada ( Cannibale , Dada ), and surrealism ( La révolution surréaliste , Le Surréalisme au service de la révolution ), while others did not have such a clear -cut aesthetic orien- tation ( Action , A ventur e , Bifur , C.A.P , Les cahiers d’au- jour d’hui , Les feuilles d’art , Le mail , Le phar e de Neuilly , Sagesse , V ariétés ). This paper discusses the art and literature magazine La Bête noir e through the lens of a ‘little magazine’. First, it analyses the circumstances of the magazine’ s establish- ment and its profile, on the basis of the eight issues that appeared from April 1935 to February 1936. It then focus- es more specifically on the aesthetic and political ideal that Raynal and Tériade tried to attain through the magazine, before moving on to highlight the role of networks both for the production of the magazine and for the critique voiced against it. Finally , the paper ar gues by way of con- clusion that the materiality of a ‘little magazine’ fitted the intentions of the creators of La Bête noir e , despite the fact that it eventually proved to be short-lived. Establishment and pr ofile La Bête noir e was conceived by writer and ethnogra- pher Michel Leiris, who also came up with its name, and writer and literary critic Marcel Moré, as a means of re- acting against the spread of fascist ideas 6 . However , those Les petites r evues: essai de bibliographie (Paris: Librairie du Mercure de France, 1900), the first catalogue of literary and art magazines in the second half of the 19th century . 6 Julie Miraucourt, “Michel Leiris et les revues modern- istes: Surréalisme, ethnographie et politique”, in Revues mod- ernistes, r evues engagées, 1900-1939 , eds. Hélène Aji, Céline Mansanti and Benoît T adié (Rennes: Presses universitaires de Rennes, 201 1): 185-196. L A BÊTE NOIRE 105 who implemented the idea and undertook publication were Stratis Eleftheriadis – alias Tériade – and Maurice Raynal 7 . The two men had previously collaborated on the daily newspaper L ’Intransigeant, as co-editors of its arts section from 1928 to 1933. From 1933 onwards they con- tinued their collaboration at Minotaur e. But they did not have the freedom they had previously enjoyed given that they had to coexist and negotiate with the co-publisher , Skira, who was supportive of André Breton and other sur - realists, much to Tériade’ s dislike. La Bête noir e probably was an opportunity for Tériade and Raynal to regain their old freedom of choice and expression and to revive the sarcastic pen of the “T wo blind men” ( Les deux aveugles , the sobriquet they used for their texts in L ’Intransigeant ) on both an aesthetic and ideological level. In Tériade’ s case, the publication of La Bête noir e may also have been another expression of his competition with his ex-col- laborator Christian Zervos, who, apart from publishing the modern art magazine Cahiers d’art , had founded the short-lived art and literature ‘little magazine’ 14, rue du dragon (1933-1934). On 15 March 1935, L ’Intransigeant announced that “Un groupe d’écrivains qui ont l’habitude de se réunir au Café des Deux-Magots vont fonder un hebdomadaire: La 7 Regarding Tériade in the interwar period, see Tériade, Écrits sur l’art , eds. Michel Anthonioz and Martine Schmidt (Paris: Adam Biro, 1996); Chara Kolokytha, “The Art Press and V isual Culture in Paris during the Great Depression: Cahiers d’Art , Minotaur e , and V erve ”, V isual Resour ces 29 (2013), 184- 215; Poppy Sfakianaki, Ο Tériade ως τεχνοκρίτης και εκδότης, 1926-1975 [Tériade, art critic and publisher , 1926-1975], un- published PhD dissertation, University of Crete, 2020, 74-454. On Maurice Raynal, see David Raynal, Maurice Raynal: la bande à Picasso (Rennes: Ouest-France, 2008). THE MA TERIALITY OF MODERNISMS 1 12 The most prominent place among artists was given to André Beaudin, who kept a distance from surrealism even though he had been influenced by it, and whose work embodied the magazine’ s aesthetic ideal. La Bête noir e published laudatory critiques of his exhibitions, as well as a full-page illustrated article about him by Raynal, who praised his temperament for being profoundly earthy and his art for its vitality , dynamism, and elegant rhythm of tones, volumes, and lines that expressed his sensitivity (Figure 2) 18 . The magazine also published articles prais- ing the painters Suzanne Roger and Louis Marcoussis, as well as the sculptor Pablo Gar gallo 19 . For instance, in com- menting on Roger ’ s exhibited work at the Galerie Simon, Raynal noted that she lent a new profound and painful breath, a pure poetic life, to the formal cubist meditations of the past: “L ’ œuvre de Suzanne Roger si magnifiquement tourmentée, cruelle et si profondément surhumaine est celle d’une très classique mystique de la sensualité” 20 . Beaudin was also the artist who drew the black beast that formed part of the magazine’ s logo. Though it is not stated anywhere, the beast seems to be a griffin, a mythical creature with the head and wings of an eagle and the body of a lion. Being the idealized combination of the kings of birds and beasts, this powerful creature was imagined to be the guardian of precious treasures. 18 Maurice Raynal, “Notes sur l’exposition André Beaudin”, La Bête noir e 7 (December 1935): 5. 19 See Maurice Raynal, “ Alcools de Guillaume Apollinaire gravés par Louis Marcoussis”, La Bête noir e 7 (December 1935): 4; “Pablo Gar gallo”, La Bête noir e 1 (April 1935): 5. 20 Maurice Raynal, “L ’actualité du gothique. À propos de l’Exposition Suzanne Roger”, La Bête noir e 1 (April 1935): 5. [Suzanne Roger ’ s work, so magnificently tormented, cruel and profoundly superhuman, is that of a truly classic mystic of sensuality]. L A BÊTE NOIRE 1 13 Figure 2 | Maurice Raynald, “Notes sur l’exposition André Beaudin”, La Bête noir e 7 (December 1935): 5. Given the surrealists’ fondness for the dark and Dionysian facet of Minoan civilization and the use of the Minotaur as the name and symbol of the journal in which they an- tagonized Tériade, selecting the griffon as la bête noir e might have been a cheeky reference to them; the grif fin THE MA TERIALITY OF MODERNISMS 1 14 is a motif to be found in Minoan art, most notably in the Throne Room at the Palace of Knossos 21 . Beaudin’ s black beast takes various animal forms, but also turns into an amorphous substance in small draw- ings scattered throughout the pages of every issue, often accompanied by playful and provocative captions full of double entendres: La bête noire est bon teint / La bête noire ne se mange pas / La bête noire ne mange pas de ce pain-là / La bête noire est de bonne humeur autant que possible / La bête noire ne donne pas la patte / La bête noire a les yeux bleus / On n’achète pas la bête noire, on la paie vingt sous. [The black beast is of good complexion [= true to itself] / The black beast is not edible [= isn’ t for the faint of heart] / The black beast doesn’t eat that bread [= doesn’ t buy into that] / The black beast is as good-humored as can be / The black beast doesn’t give a paw [= stands its ground] / The black beast has blue eyes / Y ou don’t buy the black beast, you pay it one franc]. Tériade and Raynal disapproved not only of surrealism but also of abstract art. They considered the former to be 21 Evgenia Zouzoula, The Fantastic Cr eatur es of Br onze Age Cr ete . V ol. 1: T ext , unpublished PhD dissertation, University of Nottingham, 2007, 55-58, 97-99, 150-160, 267-276, 317- 318 and passim. See also Y annis Galanakis, Efi T sitsa and Ute Günkel-Maschek, “The Power of Images: Re-examining the W all Paintings from the Throne Room at Knossos”, Annual of the British School at Athens 1 12 (2017): 47-98. On the uses and symbolism of the Minotaur by the surrealists as a new vision of humanism, see Effie Rentzou, Concepts of the W orld: The Fr ench A vant-Gar de and the Idea of the International, 1910- 1940 (Evaston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 2022), 219-276. L A BÊTE NOIRE 1 15 a literary invasion of art and an intellectual illustration of instinct, and saw the latter as decorative and ephemeral. They were less disapproving of abstraction nonetheless, since they too appreciated formal values, despite their re- jection of convenient formalist academic solutions. Thus, in his text on the Salon des Surindépendants, Raynal sin- gled out the work of Stanley W illiam Hayter and Maurice Estève, ar guing that abstraction in their work evolved in a way that proved the assimilation of the cubist paradigm and the expression of genuine sensitivity 22 . Furthermore, Tériade and Raynal were willing to accept surrealism or abstract art as a transitional phase in an artist’ s trajectory and a form of experimentation that would lead to the as- similation of selective elements towards a plastic interpre- tation of emotions 23 . That was, in their view , the case with W assily Kandinsky and Joan Miró, whom they presented in the magazine’ s fourth issue 24 . It also applied to artists such as Gaston-Louis Roux and Abraham Rattner , whose work was infused with both surrealist and geometric ele- ments, but which had returned to a figurative visual lan - guage, especially after 1930 25 . Because of the poor quality of reproduction, draw- ings were the preferred form of illustration for the mag- azine. Besides, their cartoonish nature (rapid execution, 22 Maurice Raynal, “Les Surindépendants”, La Bête noir e 6 (November 1935): 1; 4-5. 23 On this matter see Sfakianaki, Ο Tériade, 278-286. 24 Maurice Raynal, “Kandinsky” and “Exposition Miró”, La Bête noir e 4 (July 1935): 5. 25 E. Tériad e, “Exposition Rattner”, La Bête noir e 4 (July 1935): 5. After having joined the French ethnographic Dakar- Djibouti Mission in order to copy Abyssinian frescoes, Roux turned towards a more figurative expression; Gaston-Louis Roux d’une époque à l’autr e (Marsat, Puy-de-Dôme: La Source d’or , 1983). See also Gaston-Louis Roux, “Un peintre français en Abyssinie”, La Bête noir e 5 (October 1935): 3. THE MA TERIALITY OF MODERNISMS 1 16 humoristic character , free expression) best fitted the mag - azine’ s profile. Apart from Beaudin’ s drawings, four is - sues of the magazine featured drawings by the newcomer Swiss-born cartoonist and painter Géa Augsbourg, whose first album, published in 1935, was also presented in La Bête noir e 26 . Géa’ s linear , simple but also exaggerated sketching, with a sarcastic caricature rendering of the per - sonalities depicted, served the magazine’ s provocative and playful purpose (Figure 3) 27 . Borès, Balthus, and Geor ges Braque also contributed drawings, while the writers V itrac, Jean Louis Barrault, and Jacques Audiberti illustrated texts they contributed with their own drawings. La Bête noir e also gave voice to artists – both male and female, French and foreign – by publishing their own texts. Fernand Léger published a piece on color , Rogi André on photography , Hayter on engraving, Alice Halicka wrote humorous texts on the art market and the stressful experience of new artists before their gallerists, and Marc Chagall and Borès did critiques of the Italian art exhibition of 1935 28 . 26 Géa Augsbourg , “ La vie de Darius Michau d”, La Bête noir e 8 (February 1936): 6. 27 On Géa Augsbourg, see Antoine Baudin, Géa Augsbour g, 1902-1974 (Lausanne: Éditions d’en bas, 2002). 28 Marc Chagall and Francisco Borès, “Ce que pensent les peintres de l’exposition d’art italien ”, La Bête noir e 5 (October 1935): 4. The texts by Borès and Chagall published in the fifth issue were responses to an opinion poll by Tériade and Raynal that appeared in the third issue of the magazine on the influence of Italian art on modern French art. However , the poll question was posed to more artists, as suggested in a let- ter from Tériade and Raynal to Constantin Brancusi, dated 12 June 1935; Paris, Centre Pompidou, Archives de la Bibliothèque Kandinsky , Fonds Brancusi, B34. L A BÊTE NOIRE 1 17 Figur e 3 | Géa Augsbourg, New Y ork, capitale des arts, La Bête noir e 7 (December 1935): 4. THE MA TERIALITY OF MODERNISMS 1 18 Le Corbusier published three texts on architecture: one on the possibility of an effective alliance between the three major arts – architecture, sculpture, and painting; another that was an excerpt from his book V ille radieuse. The last was “I am an American”, impressions from his travels in the US, a text subsequently included in his book Quand les cathédrales étaient blanches , which came out a year later 29 . Le Corbusier also published an essay on the formal and ontological value of natural objects that was in line both with the ideas expressed by Léger at that time, and with the broader discussion about the primitive sources of art in which La Bête noir e participated through articles on naïve and Gothic art 30 . Moreover , Tériade and Raynal criticized the French state’ s cultural policy on anti-fascist grounds, lambasting the conservatism of French society , especially in their joint texts. T o give but a few examples, in the first issue they denounced Marshal Pétain’ s aesthetic conservatism on the occasion of his visit to the Grenoble Museum of Modern Art and his condemnation of modern art 31 . The second issue was an ‘anti-futurist tribute’, in which La Bête noir e marked the futurism exhibition at the Bernheim- Jeune gallery in Paris with several articles condemning both Marinetti and futurism and their connection with Fascism 32 . The vigorous attack on Fascist Italy continued 29 Le Corbusier , “Sainte alliance des Arts majeurs ou le Grand Art en Gésine”, La Bête noir e 4 (July 1935): 4; “La ville radieuse: Le soleil et l’eau”, La Bête noir e 6 (November 1935): 4-5; “I am an American”, La Bête noir e 8 (February 1936): 7. 30 Le Corbusier , “L yrisme des objets naturels”, La Bête noir e , 5 (October 1935): 4. 31 Les deux aveugles, “Paris s’em…”, La Bête noir e 1 (April 1935): 1. 32 Maurice Raynal, “L ’Arrière-Garde au Garde-à-vous. Quand les pompiers s’en vont à l’exercice”, La Bête noir e 2 (May 1935), 5. L A BÊTE NOIRE 1 19 in the third issue, to coincide with another Italian art ex- hibition being held at the Petit Palais in May 1935, as part of Mussolini’ s cultural diplomacy and the strengthening of Franco-Italian relations 33 . On one hand, the exhibition projected Italy’ s cultural vigour via the symbolic capital that the appropriation of the Renaissance offered to the Fascist regime. On the other it underlined the affinity be - tween France and Italy on the basis of humanism, shared spiritual values and the myth of Latin brotherhood, which would also pave the way for joint political, diplomatic, and colonial action. The ‘two blind men’ attacked what was a highly successful exhibition, criticizing the ignorance and ‘blindness’ of those visitors who could not discern either the threat of fascism behind the Renaissance masterpieces or the propaganda that claimed that all the works on dis- play had been brought in from Italy thanks to the goodwill of Mussolini. Y et, in reality , they argued that the best piec- es belonged to the Louvre and that the imported ones were of mediocre quality The polemical and satirical tone of the text was reinforced by the accompanying illustration: a photomontage of Botticelli’ s Birth of V enus , in which V enus had been replaced by French Foreign Minister Pierre Laval in military uniform (Figure 4). Laval was the one who had signed the Franco-Italian Accords of January 1935 and given a free hand to Mussolini in Ethiopia, in the 33 Les deux aveugles, “La France donne à l’Italie une leçon de modestie”, La Bête noir e 3 (June 1935): 5. For the ex- hibition, its political underpinnings and its reception, see Emily Braun, “Leonardo’ s Smile”, in Donatello among the Blackshirts: History and Modernity in the V isual Cultur e of Fascist Italy , eds. Claudia Lazzaro and Roger J. Crum (Ithaca; London: Cornell University Press, 2005): 173-186; Kate Kangaslahti, “Painting the National Portrait: Retrospectives of Italian and French Art in the 1930s”, Il Capitale Culturale: Studies on the V alue of Cultural Heritage 14 (2016): 275-345. THE MA TERIALITY OF MODERNISMS 120 hope of winning Italy over as an ally against Germany 34 . Furthermore, in the fifth issue of the magazine, Raynal and Tériade published an ironic draft for an exhibition of French art in Rome that included only academic works which both sides would accept and praise as good art 35 . Figure 4 | Photomontage of Bottice lli’ s Birth of V enus , La Bête noir e 3 (June 1935), 5. Finally , it is interesting to note that only a few months before giving up on his career as an art critic in 1936, Tériade used La Bête noir e as the platform where he ex- pressed his disillusionment with art exhibitions and how their or ganizers treated art critics, in sharp contrast the 34 G. Bruce Strang, “Imperial Dreams: The Mussolini- Laval Accords of January 1935”, The Historical Journal 44 (2001): 799-809. 35 Les deux aveugles, “Esquisse d’un projet pour une ex- position d’art français à Rome”, La Bête noir e 5 (October 1935): 5. L A BÊTE NOIRE 121 situation only a few years earlier , during the ‘golden age’ of art criticism: Que les temps ont changé depuis l’époque où il faisait si bon écrire sur la peinture. L ’on était aimés comme des ténors, adulés comme des fétiches, payés comme des boxeurs, et nourris comme des cochons. Surtout nul d’entre les critiques n’était tenu de payer de sa personne en visitant minutieusement les expositions comme nous sommes forcés de le faire aujourd’hui. En ce temps-là, nous écrivions d’inspiration, toujours avant de regarder les œuvres. Et c’est à cela que nous devons cette belle flo - raison lyrique et pratiquement immortelle du compte ren- du, de la préface et des monographies artistiques de l’âge d’or . T ant il est vrai que dans tout critique d’art il y a un poète qui sommeille! Attention de ne plus le réveiller . 36 [How times have changed since the days when it was such a pleasure to write about painting. W e were loved like tenors, adored like fetishes, paid like boxers, and fed like pigs. Above all, none of the critics was expected to put themselves on the line by thoroughly visiting exhi- bitions as we are forced to do today . In those days, we wrote from inspiration—always before seeing the works. And it is to that that we owe the beautiful, lyrical, and practically immortal flowering of reviews, prefaces, and artistic monographs of the golden age. For it is true that within every art critic there sleeps a poet! Beware lest you awaken him anew]. Could this be another instance of the freedom that La Bête noir e afforded Tériade to express himself? 36 E.T . [Tériade], “Compte rendu analytique des exposi- tions du mois”, La Bête noir e 7 (December 1935): 4. THE MA TERIALITY OF MODERNISMS 128 cosmopolitanism. However , he never expressed any po- litical views in his career as either an art critic or a pub- lisher , apart from some texts he co-signed with Raynal. Therefore, and without questioning the sincerity of his an- ti-fascism, we can suggest that his participation in La Bête noir e may be attributed to the opportunity it gave him to work with and promote a circle of artists, authors and other intellectuals whom he appreciated and who were part of his professional and personal networks. Likewise, Raynal’ s focus was on aesthetics, with only a handful of his writ- ings containing political references. It is noteworthy that after La Bête noir e , both Tériade and Raynal turned their attention and ener gy to luxurious publications for which they worked with the established masters of modernism: Tériade as the owner of Éditions de la revue Verve, and Raynal as a permanent collaborator of Skira. W ith regard to the second factor , La Bête noir e lacked a cohesive aesthetic position on modernism and the avant-garde; for instance, Tériade and Raynal’ s predilec- tion for a moderate modernism coexisted with the ground- breaking voices of Antonin Artaud or Georges Méliès. The absence of a clear -cut aesthetic identity ultimately weak- ened the magazine’ s message. Conclusion La Bête noir e allows us both to deepen our perspec- tive of print culture in Paris during the interwar years and broaden our understanding of the interaction between modernist and avant-garde networks. The magazine was a short-lived experiment conceived and materialized by people who were animated by the same desire to preserve their intellectual independence, and who shared a ba- sic common political conception. Representatives of the avant-garde and dissidents of surrealism with an explicit left-wing political orientation, such as Queneau, Leiris, L A BÊTE NOIRE 129 and Artaud, united with somewhat apolitical proponents of post-cubism, such as Tériade and Raynal, on the common ground of anti-fascism and dissatisfaction with Breton and his circle’ s surrealism. Furthermore, many among them had professional and personal ties that predated La Bête noir e and continued to exist afterwards, which is a remind- er of the importance of networks for such ventures. La Bête noir e ’ s materiality , namely its ‘little magazine’ format, served as a tangible sign of it being an independ- ent, non-commercially-minded publication that belonged to the progressive spectrum of French politics and culture. The artists and writers who contributed to the magazine were not irked by its format or the printing and reproduc- tion quality of their illustrations, being well aware of the fact that the cultured readership they addressed had learnt to associate ‘little magazines’ with progressive political and aesthetic ideas 49 . However , as Matthew Levay points out, a periodical is a material object whose defining feature is seriality 50 . The ideally regular appearance of successive instalments requires commitment on the part of a periodical’ s contrib- utors and a coherent sense of the periodical’ s identity and purpose, which has a direct effect on its form and content. Even though contributors to La Bête noir e aspired for it to be regular and long-lived, neither goal was achieved, due to the combined effect of its usefulness being disputed particularly by those networks that were aesthetically and politically more radical, and the fact that its own network was fluid and lacking in commitment. Symptomatic of 49 Or , to repeat Marshall McLuhan’ s oft-quoted apho- rism, they were conscious of the fact that ‘the medium is the message”. Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1964). 50 Matthew Levay , “On the Uses of Seriality for Modern Periodical Studies: An Introduction”, The Journal of Modern Periodical Studies 9 (2018), v-xix. THE MA TERIALITY OF MODERNISMS 130 the latter problem was the departure of Leiris, which was aggravated by the absence of a consistent ideological and aesthetic identity . T able 1. List of authors in La Bête noir e (1935-1936). Name No. 1 No. 2 No. 3 No. 4 No. 5 No. 6 No. 7 No. 8 A. S. L. * * A., C. * Allendry , René (docteur) * * * André, Rogi * Artaud, Antonin * * * * Audiberti (Jacques) * Baron, Jacques * * * * * * * * Barrault, Jean-Louis * Bauguion, Louis * Bergnier , Elisabeth * Bloch, J.-P . * * Borès, Francisco * Bouissounouse, Janine * Breton, André * Brune, Jacques * Brunius, Jacques * * Capitaine Némo (Le) * * Cassou, Jean * Chagall, Marc * Chastel, André * * * Cingria, Charles-Albert * * Combes, Emile * L A BÊTE NOIRE 131 Commerçant réfléchi (Le) * Conservateur bien conservé (Le) * Cravan, Arthur * Daumal, René * * De Régnier , Henri * De Richaud, André * Deux A veugles (Les) * * * * * Dietrich, Luc * Faÿ, Bernard * Fleuret, Fernand * * Follain, Jean * * Frank, André * * * * H., D. * Halicka * * Hayden, Henri * Hayter * L., A. * Lams, Marianne * Lapaquellerie, Y von * Le Corbusier * * * * Léger , Fernand * Leiris, Michel * * Maillard, Firmin * Manceron, Geneviève * Méliès, Georges * Michaux, Henri * Moré, Marcel * * * * * THE MA TERIALITY OF MODERNISMS 132 Morhange, Pierre * P ., J. * Peachy , Frédéric * Pierre-Quint, Léon * * * * Queneau, Raymond * * Raugel, Félix * Raynal, Maurice * * * * * Reverdy , Pierre * * Roux, Gaston-Louis * Supervielle, Jules * Tériade, E. * * * * V ache Noire (La) * V erdi, Giuseppe * V itrac, Roger * * * * * Bibliography Richard L. 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Rémy de Gourmont, Les petites r evues: essai de biblio- graphie (Paris: Librairie du Mercure de France, 1900). Y annis Galanakis, Efi T sitsa and Ute Günkel-Maschek, “The Power of Images: Re-examining the W all Paintings from the Throne Room at Knossos”, Annual of the British School at Athens 1 12 (2017): 47-98. Nicos Hadjikyriakos-Ghikas, letter to Christian Zervos, 23 July 1935; Paris, Centre Pompidou, Archives de la Bibliothèque Kandinsky , Fonds Cahiers d’Art (Alphabétique F). Steven Harris, Surr ealist Art and Thought in the 1930’ s: Art, Politics, and the Psyche (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004). Françoise Levaillant (ed.), André Masson. Les années sur - réalistes: corr espondance 1916-1942 (Paris: La Manufacture, 1990). Daniel Henry Kahnweiler , Entr etiens avec Francis Crémieux: mes galeries et mes peintr es (Paris: Gallimard, 1961). THE MA TERIALITY OF MODERNISMS 134 Kate Kangaslahti, “Painting the National Portrait: Retrospectives of Italian and French Art in the 1930s”, Il Capitale Culturale: Studies on the V alue of Cultural Heritage 14 (2016): 275-345. Chara Kolokytha, “The Art Press and V isual Culture in Paris during the Great Depression: Cahiers d’Art , Minotaur e , and V erve ”, V isual Resour ces 29 (2013): 184-215. Le Corbusier , “Sainte alliance des Arts majeurs ou le Grand Art en Gésine”, La Bête noir e 4 (July 1935): 4; “La ville radieu- se: Le soleil et l’eau”, La Bête noir e 6 (November 1935): 4-5; “I am an American”, La Bête noir e 8 (February 1936): 7. Michel Leiris, Écrits sur l’art (Paris: CNRS, 201 1). Les T reize, “Les Lettres”, L ’Intransigeant (15 March 1935): 6. Matthew Levay , “On the Uses of Seriality for Modern Periodical Studies: An Introduction”, The Journal of Modern Periodical Studies 9 (2018): v-xix. Les deux aveugles, “Paris s’em…”, La Bête noir e 1 (April 1935): 1. __________, “La France donne à l’Italie une leçon de mode- stie”, La Bête noir e 3 (June 1935). __________, “Esquisse d’un projet pour une exposition d’art français à Rome”, La Bête noir e 5 (October 1935): 5. Michael Levenson, “Introduction”, in The Cambridge Companion to Modernism, ed. Michael Levenson (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999): 1-8. André Masson, letter to Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler , in Françoise Levaillant (ed.), André Masson. Les années surréalis- tes: corr espondance 1916-1942 (Paris: La Manufacture, 1990), 249. __________, letter to Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler , 14 May 1935, in Françoise Levaillant (ed.), André Masson. Les années surréalistes: corr espondance 1916-1942 (Paris: La Manufacture, 1990), 251-252. __________, letter to Michel Leiris, 19 June 1935, in Françoise Levaillant (ed.), André Masson. Les années surréalis- tes: corr espondance 1916-1942 (Paris: La Manufacture, 1990), 259-262. __________, letter to Michel Leiris, 1935, in Françoise Levaillant (ed.), André Masson. Les années surréalistes: corr e- spondance 1916-1942 (Paris: La Manufacture, 1990), 264-265. L A BÊTE NOIRE 135 Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1964). Julie Miraucourt, “Michel Leiris et les revues modernistes: Surréalisme, ethnographie et politique”, in Revues modernistes, r evues engagées, 1900-1939 , ed. Hélène Aji, Céline Mansanti and Benoît T adié (Rennes: Presses universitaires de Rennes, 201 1): 185-196. Isabelle Monod-Fontaine, Claude Laugier and Sylvie W arnier (eds.), Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler: mar chand, éditeur , écrivain (Paris: Centre Geor ges Pompidou, 1984). Pascal Ory and Jean-François Sirinelli (eds.), Les intel- lectuels en France, de l’affair e Dr eyfus à nos jours (Paris: A. Colin, 1986). Pascal Ory , La belle illusion: cultur e et politique sous le si- gne du Fr ont populair e, 1935-1938 (Paris: Plon, 1994). Patrick-Gilles Persin (ed.), “Monsieur Beaudin”, in André Beaudin , (Paris: AR T in progress, 2007): 7-16. Raymond Queneau, Journaux (1914-1965) , ed. Anne Isabelle Queneau (Paris: Gallimard, 1996). __________, “L ’air et la chanson”, La Bête noir e 2 (May 1935): 3. David Raynal, Maurice Raynal: la bande à Picasso (Rennes: Ouest-France, 2008). Maurice Raynal, “Le cubisme”, in Les créateurs du cubisme (Paris: Les Beaux-arts, 1935): 4-7. __________, “Notes sur l’exposition André Beaudin”, La Bête noir e 7 (December 1935): 5. __________, “ Alcools de Guillaume Apollinaire gravés par Louis Marcoussis”, La Bête noir e 7 (December 1935): 4 __________, “L ’actualité du gothique. À propos de l’Expo- sition Suzanne Roger”;“Pablo Gar gallo”, La Bête noir e 1 (April 1935): 5. __________, “Les Surindépendants”, La Bête noir e 6 (November 1935): 1; 4-5. __________, “Kandinsky” and “Exposition Miró”, La Bête noir e 4 (July 1935): 5. __________, “L ’Arrière-Garde au Garde-à-vous. Quand les pompiers s’en vont à l’exercice”, La Bête noir e 2 (May 1935), 5. THE MA TERIALITY OF MODERNISMS 136 Effie Rentzou, Concepts of the W orld: The Fr ench A vant- Gar de and the Idea of the International, 1910-1940 (Evaston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 2022). Gaston-Louis Roux, “Un peintre français en Abyssinie”, La Bête noir e 5 (October 1935): 3. Geor ges Sadoul, “Memento”, Commune: r evue de l’Asso- ciation des écrivains et des artistes révolutionnair es (January 1935): 1046-1050. ___________, “Revue des revues”, Commune: r evue de l’Association des écrivains et des artistes révolutionnair es (January 1936): 764-770. Martine Schmidt-Grevin, “Tériade et la presse”, in Tériade, É crits sur l’art , ed. Michel Anthonioz and Martine Schmidt (Paris: Adam Biro, 1996): 21-30. Poppy Sfakianaki, Ο Tériade ως τεχνοκρίτης και εκ δότης, 1926-1975 [Tériade, art critic and publisher , 1926-1975], unpu- blished PhD dissertation (University of Crete, 2020). Evanghelia Stead, “Reconsidering ‘Little’ versus ‘Big’ Periodicals”, Journal of Eur opean Periodical Studies 1.2 (W inter 2016): 1-17 https://doi.org/10.21825/jeps.v1i2.3860. G. Bruce Strang, “Imperial Dreams: The Mussolini-Laval Accords of January 1935”, The Historical Journal 44 (2001): 799-809. E. Tériade, Écrits sur l’art , ed. Michel Anthonioz and Martine Schmidt (Paris: Adam Biro, 1996). _________, “Besoin d’un ‘nouveau Fauvisme’”, “Besoin d’un ‘nouveau Fauvisme’: II. Réalisme subjectif ou peintu- re d’imagination” and “Besoin d’un ‘nouveau Fauvisme’: III. D’autres jeunes peintres devant la peinture pure”, Comœdia (1, 8 and 22 September 1927): 3. _________, “Constance du fauvisme”, Minotaur e 9 (October 1936): 1-3. _________, “Exposition Rattner”, La Bête noir e 4 (July 1935): 5. E. Tériade and Raynal to Constantin Brancusi, dated 12 June 1935; Paris, Centre Pompidou, Archives de la Bibliothèque Kandinsky , Fonds Brancusi, B34. E.T . [Tériade], “Compte rendu analytique des expositions du mois”, La Bête noir e 7 (December 1935): 4. L A BÊTE NOIRE 137 Jeanine W arnod, “Rencontres: V isite à Tériade en hiver 1982”, in Regar ds sur Minotaur e (Geneva: Musée d’art et d’hi- stoire, 1987): 245. Evgenia Zouzoula, The Fantastic Cr eatur es of Br onze Age Cr ete . V ol. 1: T ext , unpublished PhD dissertation (University of Nottingham, 2007). THE MA TERIALITY OF MODERNISMS 144 acquire their own dignity as material entities, regardless of the purpose for which they were created. From this perspective, the poet recovers the category of waste and reject, with special reference to industrial prod - ucts, in their quality of being entities freed from the con- straints of the function imposed on them by social conven- tions. The useless objects in the verses are imbued with the semantic significance of the ‘obsolete objects’ categorized by Orlando (2006). They are material entities that reveal themselves “in contrast with the implied and ever -varying ideals of usefulness, or newness, or normality” 6 and inter - twine in peculiar relationships with humans. Barros’ s dis - course expands to include minor beings, inhabitants of the soil, and individuals excluded by society . By doing that, the poet subverts the canonical values of the hyper -indus- trialized and consumerist culture of the twentieth century and proposes a new hierarchy in which the useless and the mar ginalized occupy the highest position. Uselessness is therefore the liberation from responding to the rational expectations of society in order to be able to follow the new and unprecedented trajectories that imagination can open up. In Barros’ s dictionary , the concept of uselessness is evolved into that of desutilidade , since useless entities ‒ beings and objects ‒ are presented as “differently-use - ful”, as they are at the same time useless for the consum- erist civilization, being non-productive, but at the same time they are extremely useful as poetic objects, as they can surrender to the possibilities opened by imagination thanks to their uselessness. Poetry itself is useless, as it is able to endow waste, rubbish, ruins with a new identity , with no practical uses. 6 Francesco Orlando, Obsolete objects in the literary imagination. Ruins, r elics, rarities, rubbish, uninhabited places, and hidden treasures, transl. Gabriel Pihas (New Haven: Y ale University Press, 2006), 2. A CORPOREAL EXPERIENCE OF THE WORLD 145 The criticism against twentieth-century models and lifestyle permeates Barros’ s works. It is in the condemna - tion of consumerism, of non-significant productivity (as devoid of authentic meaning), of pre-established models accepted and absorbed without critically thinking about the way they ruin our relationship with the phenomenic world and the entities that inhabit it. The goal is to recov - er a condition of harmony , opening up to communica- tion with external entities. The appeal that emer ges from Barros’ s verses invites the reader to slow down, to look at what surrounds him with different, more attentive eyes, directed downwards, to the ground, to what is small and insignificant, to what is discarded and thrown away , but still proudly exists and offers to our senses its physical tan - gible deposed materiality . W e consequently detect in his work an evident didac - tic posture, guidelines offered to readers and at the same time the composing of a handbook that the poet provides himself, never to forget what is important. W e can easily find in the titles of the sections of his books, words like “Exercises”, “Didactics”, “Notebook”, learning tools of the diligent student who commits to the methodical dis - covery of everyday life and its evidence, which already lies before his eyes. The apology of the ground, of the tiny , of the lowest, once again puts Barros in revolutionary contrast with the elevated themes of traditional literature: Desinventar objetos . O pente, por exemplo. Dar ao pente funções de não pentear . Até que ele fique à disposição de ser uma begônia. Ou uma gravanha. (300) As coisas não quer em mais ser vistas por pessoas razoáveis : Elas desejam ser olhadas de azul – Que nem uma criança que você olha de ave. (302) THE MA TERIALITY OF MODERNISMS 146 O que eu queria era fazer brinquedos com as palavras. Fazer coisas desúteis . O nada mesmo. T udo o que use o abandono por dentro e por fora. (327) 7 A gente gostava das palavras quando elas perturbavam o sentido normal das ideias . […] A gente gostava das palavras quando elas perturbavam os sentidos normais da fala. 8 A poetry of the state of being a thing Going further , Manoel de Barros’ s poetry is ‘a poetry of the state of being a thing’ as a privileged condition: we live in a society shaped by the myths of speed, progress, productivity , trapped in a system that excludes human be - ings from the possibility of an authentic relationship with phenomenic reality . T o our corrupted society Barros op- poses the celebration of stasis and abandonment to the slow but relentless forces of nature, pursuing the return to an ancestral condition of communion with the world around us. Hence the recurring verses linked to the contemplation of the disintegration of entities when abandoned to nature, the dissolution after death, from which the apotheosis of metamorphosis derives, the extreme condition of com - munion made possible by shedding human features to as- sume the state of thing. It is the same metamorphosis that Barros implements in his lexicon and syntax: the human being participates in the essence of things: Sente-se pois então que árvor es, bichos e pessoas têm natur eza assumida igual. O homem no longe, alongado 7 Barros, Poesia completa . The numbers in parentheses indicate the page numbers where the quote appears. 8 Manoel de Barros, Menino do mato (São Paulo: LeY a, 2010), 10-12. A CORPOREAL EXPERIENCE OF THE WORLD 147 quase, e suas referências vegetais, animais. T odos se fundem na mesma natur eza intacta . Sem as químicas do civilizado. O velho quase-animismo. (208) Compr eendo a terra podre e fermentada De raízes mortas. […] Compreendo esse garfo na terra A germinar ferrugens Sob laranjais… (55) Com a boca escorr endo chão o menino despetalava o córrego de manhã todo no seu corpo. A água do lábio relvou entre pedras… (105) Noto que às vezes sou desvirtuado a pássaros, que sou desvirtuado em árvores, que sou desvirtuado para pedras . (395) 9 Er os and cr eation It becomes evident how corporeity and material phys - icality transcend the descriptive, lexical and construction level of the poetic image to go deeper and establish roots in the creative process itself and in its epistemological premises, thus configuring poetry as a tool to reach knowl - edge of the world through the body . The body is presented not only as an instrument of per - ception but also and above all as a participating element in the world whose essence it seeks to capture, involved in the same metamorphic dynamics it observes. 9 Barros, Poesia completa . The numbers in parentheses indicate the page numbers where the quote appears. THE MA TERIALITY OF MODERNISMS 148 The exchange between the individual and the external world pours into the verses transfiguring things and enti - ties. The poems, therefore, although deeply rooted in the damp soil of the Pantanal, are never landscape pictures of the region. Everything within his poetic microcosm is endowed with an amplified, vaster , and more inclusive meaning, each minimal element is significant and neces - sary in the context in which it appears. Corporeality is the key , but the body that implements it in the verse is a distorted, changing body that yields to the transforming force of nature and of the poetic word. The slug, a lesma , is the strongest symbol of this relationship between body and writing: it lives on the ground, crawl - ing slowly , often unnoticed; yet, this animal is nonetheless able to write with its body , leaving a trail of light on the ground in a sensual and erotic exchange. This erotic recip - rocation is the key in the poet’ s writing: Em passar sua vagínula sobre as pobres coisas do chão, a lesma deixa risquinhos líquidos… A lesma influi muito em meu desejo de gosmar sobre as palavras Neste coito com letras! (260) Uma palavra abriu o roupão pra mim. V i tudo dela: a escova fofa, o pente a doce maçã. A mesma maçã que perdeu Adão. […] Depois a palavra teve piedade E esfregou a lesma dela em mim. (444) – E sobre a palavra, ela? – Mexo com palavra como quem mexe com pimenta até vir sangue no ór gão. […] A CORPOREAL EXPERIENCE OF THE WORLD 149 – E como é que o senhor escreve? – Como se bronha E agora peço desculpas Estou arrumado para pedra. (180) Experimento o gozo de criar . Experimento o gozo de Deus. Faço vaginação com palavras até meu retrato aparecer . Apareço de costas. (360) 10 The preponderance of eroticism recurs in the references to the genesis of life, described in its bodily dimension and in the osmotic exchange of substances. The observation of regenerative vitality in the Pantanal leads Barros on the path of a significant parallelism with the artistic creation, leading to the configuration of a poetic cosmogony . A poetry of the coincidence of wor d and thing The ultimate variation of the tension towards material - ity in Barros’ s poetry is the search for ‘cancelling the dis - tance between word and object ’ . Poetry itself needs to pass through the process of metamorphosis, turning into thing. The poet acts on the word as a new demiurge, crafting a new transfigured literary cosmos. According to Barros’ s vision, reaching the thing means understanding its essence through a material communion, coming to possess its idea. This aligns closely with Bill Brown’ s assertion in A Sense of Things (2004) that “the mereness of the thing, its present physical presence, is in- separable from its metaphysical past” 11 . 10 Barros, Poesia completa . The numbers in parentheses indicate the page numbers where the quote appears. 11 Bill Brown, A Sense of Things: The Object Matter of American Literatur e (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, THE MA TERIALITY OF MODERNISMS 150 Thus, the exploration gradually makes its way towards the point of origin of the W ord: avançar para o começo [going forward to the beginning] writes Barros 12 , a par - adox that expresses the longing for the moment in which word and object coincided in a perfect communion be - tween the signifier and the signified. Como não ascender ainda mais até na ausência da voz? (Ausência da voz é infantia , com t, em latim.) Pois como não ascender até a ausência da voz – Lá onde a gente pode ver o próprio feto do verbo – ainda sem movimento. Aonde a gente pode enxer gar o feto dos nomes – ainda sem penugens. […] Como não voltar para onde a invenção está vir gem? Por que não ascender de volta para o tartamudo! 13 Nouns must under go the same process of abandon- ment, surrendering, and undoing as the objects ‒ and the poet ‒ need to do: Deixar os substantivos passarem anos no esterco, deita - dos de barriga, até que eles possam carrear para o poema um gosto de chão – como cabelos desfeitos no chão […]. Sou mais a palavra com febre, decaída, fodida, na sarjeta. Sou mais a palavra ao ponto de entulho. Amo arrastar algumas no caco de vidro, enver gá-las pro chão, corrompê-las até que padeçam de mim e me sujem de branco. 14 2003), 1. 12 Barros, Poesia completa , 339. 13 Barros, Poesia completa , 409-410. 14 Barros, Poesia completa , 149; 172. A CORPOREAL EXPERIENCE OF THE WORLD 151 It is in the context of this research that Barros’ s ex - perimentation involves the physical characteristics of the text in a more decisive way , extensively employing bibli - ographical codes in the construction of meaning 15 . T aking into account the levels of analysis identified by Lennard (2000), it is on multiple levels – within the word itself, the verses, the page, the pagination, the structure of the work, and the book as an object – that Barros demonstrates engagement with graphic design as a conceptual category . A relevant example is the strategic use of the paratext. The framework of the written text gives a strong contri - bution to the semantic construction of Barrosian poet- ic discourse. All this emer ges in the titles of books and sections, which the poet creates by using words such as “grammar”, “treatise”, “history”, “compendium”, “glos- sary” . Barrosian titles play on the contamination between textual genres, giving an ambiguous objectivity and con - creteness to the poet’ s message. At the same time, they refer to Manoel’ s real writing practice, that was hand - writing in notebooks made by the poet himself. This is suggestively documented in the documentary Só dez por cento é mentira , produced in 2008 by the director Pedro Cezar , that shows the poet proudly displaying his hand - crafted notebooks. His bloquinhos , made with love, have carefully selected covers portraying inspirational people and works of art. Painters and poets who were fundamen - tal to the formation of Barros stand out, such as Rimbaud and Picasso. Cezar ’ s documentary represents a precious cinematographic document, as Barros didn’t usually allow anyone to film his interviews; the poet used to prefer writ - ten interviews, another evidence of his preference for the materiality of the written word compared to the inconsist - ency of speech. 15 See Jerome J. McGann, The textual condition (Princeton: University Press, 1991). THE MA TERIALITY OF MODERNISMS 152 The titles of the works and of the internal sections of the books, the glossaries, and the notes that are often in - serted in the poems, are fundamental elements in the archi- tecture of Barros’ s discourse, either as integral parts of the poems or functioning as intertext 16 : Cisco, s.m. Pessoa esbarrada em raiz de parede Qualquer indivíduo adequado a lata Quem ouve zoadas de brenha. Chamou-se de O CISCO DE DEUS a São Francisco de Assis Diz-se também de homem numa sarjeta 17 *** A Máquina tritura anêmonas não é fonte de pássaros (1) etc. etc. (1) isto é: não dá banho em minhoca / atola na pedra / bota azeitona na empada dos outr os / atravessa períodos de calma / corta de machado / inocula o vírus do mal / adota uma posição / deixa o cor dão umbilical na pr ovín- cia / tira leite de veado corr endo / extrai vísceras do mar / apar ece como desapar ece / vai de sar dinha nas feiras / entra de gaiato / não mora no assunto e no morr o (…) 18 *** Bernardo escreve escorreito, com as unhas, na água, O Dialeto-Rã.* 16 See Glyn White, “The critic in the text: footnotes and mar ginalia in the Epilogue to Alasdair Gray’ s Lanark: A Life in Four Books”, in Ma(r)king the text: The pr esentation of meaning on the literary page , eds. Joe Bray , Miriam Handley and Anne C. Henry (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2000): 55-70. 17 Barros, Poesia completa , 181. 18 Barros, Poesia completa , 140. A CORPOREAL EXPERIENCE OF THE WORLD 153 Nele o chão exubera. O Dialeto-Rã exara lanhos. Bernardo conversa em rã como quem conversa em Aramaico. _____________________________________________ * Falado por pessoas de águas, r emanescentes do Mar de Xaraiés, o Dialeto-Rã, na sua escrita, se assemelha ao Aramaico – idioma falado pelos povos que antigamente habitavam a r egião pantanosa entr e o T igr e e o Eufrates. Sabe-se que o Aramaico e o Dialeto-Rã são línguas es- corr egadias e carr egadas de consoantes líquidas. É a razão desta nota. 19 Barrosian peculiar titles and his use of the paratext in poetry are the expression of a communicative strate - gy which feeds on the contamination of different textual genres and the rupture with literary tradition, in line with the Modernist innovative achievements resulting from the Brazilian Semana de Arte Moderna. Even the organizing elements of the text operate in the same direction: simple, bulleted and numbered lists, subdivisions, page layouts define the poet’ s unique style and contribute to the creation of a prosaic and anti-academic tone and rhythm, interven- ing in the discourse through the contribution of pseudosci- entific or pseudo-bureaucratic parts. The lists interrupt the narration and create effects of paradoxical disor ganization, which by contrast reinforce the message of criticism of the blindly rationalist and bureaucratic society in which we live: Para apalpar as intimidades do mundo é preciso saber: a) Que o esplendor da manhã não se abre com faca 19 Barros, Poesia completa , 244. THE MA TERIALITY OF MODERNISMS 256 Another image published in the Italian editorial con- text during the same period effectively summarizes some of the reflections on photographic Modernism discussed so far . It is the cover of the photographic technique volume Io vi insegno la fotografia ( I T each you Photography ) by Giuseppe Enrie, published in T urin in 1934 (Figure 7). Figure 7 | Giuseppe Enrie, Io vi insegno la fotografia (T orino: SEI, 1934). Cover . Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze. ON A NEW DEFINITION OF IT ALIAN PHOT OGRAPHIC 257 A strip of small negative copies is arranged on the left side, while a graphic composition combines the images of a human eye and a camera lens: the eye of the lens in the middle of the cover on a red background above the title. This allows for an unprecedented view of the world, creat- ing a new understanding and awareness of it. An effective explanation of this image seemed to have already been pro- vided in an article published in 1931 by Antonio Boggeri. He was a photographer , advertising graphic designer , pho- tography critic, and one of the leading Italian interpreters of European avant-garde. In the science magazine Natura , commenting the T erzo “Salon” italiano d’arte fotografica internazionale held in T urin in 1930-1931, Boggeri wrote: Quanto alla conoscenza del nostro piccolo mondo abitu- ale basta poco per accorgerci che essa è ben superficiale e solo relativa ad immagini-tipo. Ed ecco che l’occhio implacabile dell’obiettivo opera delle vere e proprie sco- perte della materia: vetro, ferro, stoffa, legno, le quali si accompagnano istantaneamente a infinite sensazioni la - tenti nella nostra conoscenza. È impossibile descrivere queste sensazioni: esse sono in effetti soltanto proprie alle immagini in quanto esse solo le suscitano precise ed inconfondibili. Ma ancora il fotografo può trarre profitto dalle proprietà naturali di questi elementi e liricamente esprimerne la bellezza. 30 30 Antonio Boggeri, “Il III ‘Salon’ italiano d’arte foto- grafica internazionale a T orino”, Natura 1 (1931), 59-66. [As for the understanding of our small familiar world, it takes little to realize that it is quite superficial and only relative to type-im - ages. And so the relentless eye of the lens makes true discover- ies of the material: glass, iron, fabric, wood, which are instantly accompanied by infinite sensations latent in our knowledge. It is impossible to describe these sensations: they are in fact only inherent to the images, since only they evoke them precisely and unmistakably . But the photographer can still benefit from the THE MA TERIALITY OF MODERNISMS 258 If modern photography , on an aesthetic and visual lev- el, provides the elements for a new phenomenology of un- derstanding, then Modernism becomes a tool for analyzing and deciphering this kind of process. It is a historiographic and methodological apparatus for studying materials and sources in their significant specific dimension, but also in their fundamental relational complexity . 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Sima  o P al meiri m - Pe dr o F r eit as ON A CRITICAL EDITION OF AN AR TIST ’S BOOK Intr oduction José de Almada Negreiros (São T omé and Príncipe, 1893 – Lisbon, 1970) was a central figure for twenti - eth-century Portuguese visual arts and literature. He was an avant-garde artist from the beginning of his career , teaming up with other like-minded cultural figures to create the literary magazine Orpheu . For some time, he presented himself as a Futurist, especially in his famous Anti-Dantas Manifest (1915), in which he took a stance against the stale academicism in the Portuguese cultural scene. Eventually , his work became closer to Cubism and Geometric Abstractionism. Almada also had some contacts with the international art scene. He was in Paris for a short time (1919-1920) and then in Madrid (1927-1932), where he started to collabo - rate with architects. This interest would stay with him upon his return to Portugal, where he would spend the rest of his life, after marrying the painter Sarah Affonso (1899-1983). He accepted invitations to participate in many architectur - al public works, mostly from Porfírio Pardal Monteiro. Among these are the murals of the maritime stations of Rocha Conde de Óbidos and Alcântara, in Lisbon. Overall, Almada’ s artistic legacy is vast, comprising poetry , plays, lectures, paintings, and public art such as murals, stained glass windows, and tapestries. Almada’ s interest in geometry can be traced back to 1926, when he and José de Bragança, historian and art crit - ic, analyzed the famous St. V incent Panels and proposed THE MA TERIALITY OF MODERNISMS 262 a common vanishing point for all the paintings, which would be apparent if they were placed in a new specif - ic arrangement. However , it was only in the 1950s that Almada’ s art took a turn towards abstract geometry with his four black-and-white paintings, presented in 1957. In the same decade, he accompanied his geometric art with theoretical developments, in the vein of other artists of the same period such as Le Corbusier 1 . In 1960 he pub - lished several interviews on the role of geometry in art, proposing a universalistic theory on the matter , which he called a canon. The following quotes, from the 1960 inter - views, reflect his thinking, and describe, to some extent, the contents of this canon. (…) ir ao encontro de um Cânone. Eis a razão fundamen - tal de todo o meu trabalho. O Cânone não está exclusivamente nos exemplos da Idade Média, não está só nos exemplos da Idade Média, como não está só nos exemplos da Suméria, não está só nos de Creta, Gregos, Bizantinos, Árabes, Hebraicos, Românicos ou Góticos. Ele está sempre e é por isso mes - mo que ele é Cânone. (…) quando concluí o meu trabalho consegui fazer num período único todo o conhecimento geométrico que é do seguinte teor: a divisão simultânea do quadrado e do cír - culo em partes iguais e partes proporcionais é a origem simultânea das constantes da relação 9/10, grau, média e extrema razão e prova dos nove. 1 Simão Palmeirim, “Almada Negreiros and Le Corbusier . Parallel methodologies and critical reception”, RIHA Journal 0316 (2024). ON A CRITICAL EDITION OF AN AR TIST’ S BOOK 263 O Cânone não é obra do homem, é a captação que o homem pode da imanência. É o advento inicial da luz epistemológica. 2 He understood this canon as a set of geometric con - structions that would underlie artworks and cultural arte - facts from many periods and diverse geographic origins, a sort of universal geometry principles for art. Completed in 1969, his work Começar 3 , a lar ge-scale stone engraved mural, is a conclusion of Almada’ s investigations and pro - posals in this area. The collection Language of the Squar e Almada’ s work has gained new attention in these past few years, within the project modernismo.pt. Recently , 2 António V aldemar , Almada. Os painéis, a geometria e tudo – as entr evistas com António V aldemar (Lisboa: Assírio e Alvim, 2015), 62-71. [(…) to move towards a Canon. This is the reason for all my work. / The Canon is not just in the examples from the Middle Ages, not just in the examples from the Middle Ages, as it is not just in the examples from Sumeria, Crete, Greece, Byzantium, from Arabs or Hebrews, Romanic or Gothic. It exists always, and that is why it is a Canon. / (…) when I finished my work I was able to do in a single period all the geometric knowledge which is of the following nature: the simultaneous division of the square and the circle into equal parts and proportional parts is the simultaneous origin of the constants of the r elation 9/10 , degree, mean and extreme ratio, and casting out nines. / The Canon is not the work of man, it is the possible human capturing of immanence. It is the initial advent of epistemological light], all translations by the authors except when stated otherwise. 3 Located in the hall of the main building of Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian (FCG). For more on this mural, and a brief analysis of its content, see https://gulbenkian.pt/ almada-comecar/en/. THE MA TERIALITY OF MODERNISMS 264 a new research centre was created, CEDANSA (Centro de Estudos e Documentação Almada Negreiros Sarah Affonso), dedicated to the study and or ganization of the estate of Almada Negreiros and his wife, Sarah Affonso 4 . This estate contains a n impressive collection of drawings, under the title Relação 9/10 – Linguagem do Quadrado [ Relation 9/10 – Language of the Squar e ]. “Relation 9/10” is the expression the author coined for his definition of a geometrical canon and serves as a title for many of his artworks, drawings, and notebooks. Almada also developed his ideas on the “Relation 9/10” in different ways, namely through diagrams or essays, relating it more in-depth with philosophy or art history . “Language of the Square”, originally the subtitle of this collection, is seldom used by Almada although it is a more adequate description of the contents, as we show . Language of the Squar e comprises about 128 drawings, probably dating from the late 1950s or early 1960s. This attributed date is justified by the proximity of content with other works of the same period (namely the paintings from 1957), and also by the fact that one of the drawings in the collection shows a similar text to an announcement, published by Almada on July 14th, 1960 in Diário de Notícias 5 . They all have the same dimensions (63 x 45 cm) and brand of paper (Hoesch W att embossed stamp), they all use a consistent set of instruments (ruler and set square, compass and alphabet tracing ruler), drawing materials (graphite, ball-point pen, and color markers) and the same group of colors (orange, teal, yellow , red, green) with very few exceptions (where black is used). 4 The website modernismo.pt: IEL T NOV A-FCSH: PTDC/CLE-LLI/1 1 1984/2009. The Centre for documentation and studies Almada Negreiros Sarah Affonso (CEDANSA): UIDB/00417/2020 (IHA) and UIDB/00657/2020 (IEL T). 5 In the author ’ s estate there are preparatory arrangements for this published announcement: ANSA-A-1 143 and 1 144. ON A CRITICAL EDITION OF AN AR TIST’ S BOOK 265 The drawings are geometrical in nature, and many of them build on each other , suggesting the progression of a discourse and an explanation of a mathematical idea, somewhat in the style of a manual 6 . This type of geome - try-based work is not new for Almada 7 , but, in this collec - tion, it becomes explanatory and progressive, which is a novelty compared to works such as the paintings of 1957 or the mural Começar . In referring to these works, we use the catalogue num - bers of modernismo.pt which always start with ANSA-C, followed by a number . ANSA is an acronym for “Almada Negreiros Sarah Affonso” and the letter C refers to “cader - no”, the Portuguese word for “notebook”. ANSA-A refers to “artworks”. These numbers were attributed as the cat - aloguing process advanced, so they do not represent any kind of authorial order . The interested reader can find all the notebooks and artworks we refer to using these cata - logue numbers on the respective website. The magnitude of this collection came to light in the early 2010s. These drawings emer ged, with time, along with other notebooks with geometric content and artworks that reflected Almada’ s geometrical research. One exam - ple is ANSA-C-3 and C-25, which, brought together , form a small booklet of geometric constructions, presented cu - mulatively 8 . Another collection of globally coherent draw - ings is ANSA-A-1041 to A-1 142, in which the dimensions and topics are similar to those of Language of the Squar e , although with no recognizable systematic or ganization. 6 Pedro Freitas, “The mathematics of Almada Negreiros”, Journal of Mathematics and the Arts 17:3-4 (2023): 333-346. 7 Pedro J. Freitas and Simão Palmeirim Costa, “Almada Negreiros and the Geometric Canon”, Journal of Mathematics and the Arts 9.1-2 (2015): 27-36. 8 This booklet is currently the object of a particular study , in the context of a Master ’ s Thesis in History and Philosophy of Science in the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon. THE MA TERIALITY OF MODERNISMS 272 lates to the golden ratio, here called “mean and extreme ra - tio”, as in Euclid’ s Elements . Many of the drawings exhibit ways to construct the golden rectangle, especially those in section 2. “Casting out nines” is a simple method for checking the results of elementary written computations 15 . However , the quote by Aristotle that follows the expression leads us to think that the meaning Almada attributes to this expres - sion is more geometric than algebraic, possibly having to do with the division of the circle into 9 parts. This collection shows how , from a circle inscribed in a square, one can obtain the elements of the canon that Almada describes in this title page (and others), using ele - mentary and often simple geometric constructions. These constructions – and the geometric tracings they use – work as a vocabulary of the language of the square with which he illustrates his thesis about the canon. There are eleven different pages with quotes. They read as follows: “T oda a novidade não é senão esquecimento.” / Salomão “A unidade, isto é, o ponto não-espacial.” / “O desigual, isto é, o relativo.” / Aristóteles “T udo é número.” / “O sagrado Quaternário, nascente / e fonte da eterna natureza.” / Pitágoras “A década é o número perfeito porque…” / Filolau / “Parece que a década é o número perfeito.” / Aristóteles 15 It consists of a comparison of the remainders of the division by 9 of the numbers that enter an operation with the remainder of the result of the operation (sum, subtraction, mul - tiplication, or division). These remainders can be obtained by adding the digits of the numbers. ON A CRITICAL EDITION OF AN AR TIST’ S BOOK 273 / “O número perfeito que os gregos chamam théleon ” / V itrúvio “O quaternário compõe a década / o quaternário é média entre / a mónada incriada e o septenário / que carece de mãe. / O septenário tem, pela segunda / vez, a virtude da mónada.” / Hierócles Se os poliedros regulares foram / inventados ou desco - bertos, teve por / resposta: “Deus faz a curva e o homem a direita.” “Arquitas de T arento deu a Platão / o livro de Filolau.” / Clemente de Alexandria “O ponto que está no círculo, / no quadrado e no triângu - lo.” / Bauhütte “O gráfio, regrão ou stylo, / é o primeiro bordão dos / desenhadores e o mais remoto, / e esta arte dos gre - gos é / chamada antigrafia.” / V itrúvio / traduzido por / Francisco da Hollanda “Pintar o sete.” / Provérbio português “Deus escreve direito por linhas tortas.” / “Não há duas sem três e à quarta / é vez.” / Provérbios portugueses 16 16 [All novelty is nothing but oblivion.” / Solomon “Unity , that is, the non-spatial point” / “The unequal, that is, the relative” / Aristotle “All is number .” / “The sacred Quaternary , source / and foun - tain of eternal nature.” / Pythagoras “The decade is the perfect number because…” / Philolaus / “It seems that the decade is the perfect number .” / Aristotle / “The perfect number which the Greeks call théleon” / V itruvius THE MA TERIALITY OF MODERNISMS 274 The ordering proposed for this section is as follows, covers: ANSA-A-895; title page: ANSA-A-931; quotes: ANSA-A-929, 924, 927, 921, 920, 930, 917, 926, 925, 932, 928 Figure 1 | José de Almada Negreiros, drawings from Language of the Square, c. 1960. ANSA-A-895, ANSA-A-931 and ANSA-A-929, CEDANSA – NOV A FCSH / © Herdeiros de José de Almada Negreiros. “The quaternary makes up the decade / the quaternary is the average between / the uncreated monad and the septenary / which lacks a mother . / The septenary has, for the second / time, the virtue of the monad.” / Hierocles If regular polyhedra were / invented or discovered, the / an - swer was: “God makes the curve and man the straight line.” “Archytas of T arentum gave Plato / the book of Philolaus.” / Clement of Alexandria “The point that is in the circle, / in the square and in the trian - gle.” / Bauhütte “The gráfio , r egrão, or stylo , / is the first staff of the / draughts - men and the most remote, / and this art of the Greeks is / called antigraphy .” / V itruvius / translated by / Francisco da Hollanda “Paint the seven.” / Portuguese proverb “God writes straight on crooked lines.” / “There are no two without three and the fourth / is the charm.” / Portuguese proverbs]. ON A CRITICAL EDITION OF AN AR TIST’ S BOOK 275 2. Division of the cir cle into 8, 9, 10, and 5 parts; φ – golden r ectangle This section is dedicated to the division of the circle into equal parts, starting with the division in 8 and moving on to 9, 10 and 5 equal parts. In the process, the golden rectangle is also constructed and duly marked. Throughout the whole collection, some of these divisions are exact, whereas some others are good approximations 17 . The first two drawings are numbered by Almada himself and are crucial to understanding the proposed organization, not only of this thematic group but of the whole set. This is because the division of a circle into 8 equal parts is one of the simplest geometrical procedures, deriving from the division in 4. In our proposed narrative, the section is com - posed of drawings ANSA-A-885, 907, 892, 599 and 591. Figure 2 | José de Almada Negreiros, drawings from Language of the Square, c. 1960. ANSA-A-885, ANSA-A-907 and ANSA-A-599, CEDANSA – NOV A FCSH / © Herdeiros de José de Almada Negreiros. 17 For a geometric analysis of some of these construc - tions, see Simão Palmeirim Costa and Pedro J. Freitas, Livr o de Pr oblemas de Almada Negr eir os (Lisboa: Sociedade Portuguesa de Matemática, 2015), coleção Leituras em Matemática, vol. 14. THE MA TERIALITY OF MODERNISMS 276 The images in Figure 2 have the following annotations: numbers 8 and 9 on the first and second ones, and numbers 5, 9, and 10 on the third one, along with the following equality 18 : 3. Division of the cir cle into 7 parts This section is dedicated to the expression “Pintar o sete” [Painting the seven], a Portuguese saying 19 that Almada quotes numerous times. He uses a vernacular ex - pression to illustrate what he believes to be a national in - terest in numbers, linking it to the division of the circle into 7 equal parts. On this topic, in document ANSA-C-335, Almada presents some meanings that he associates with this expression: “Pintar o sete” é arcaico. (…) Arcaico não é arcaizante. Arcaizante volta a caminho do arcaico. Arcaico perdura. (…) O popular actual português não esquece o que guarda no “pintar o sete”: fazer maravilhas. O vulgo confunde-o com “pintar a manta”: fazer diabruras. [Painting the seven” is archaic. (…) 18 The interpretation of these annotations would fall out - side the scope of this paper . The interested reader can consult Costa and Freitas, Livr o de Pr oblemas de Almada Negr eir os . 19 According to Orlando Neves, Dicionário das Origens das Frases Feitas (Porto: Lello & Irmão – Editores, 1992), the expression “pintar o sete” has a similar meaning to the phrase “pintar a manta”: to make a big fuss, mischief, disorder . It can be related to painting the town . 𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟 = 09 � � � � + 010 � � � � � 2 ON A CRITICAL EDITION OF AN AR TIST’ S BOOK 277 Archaic is not archais ing. Archai s ing returns to the way of the archaic. Archaic lasts. (…) The current popular portuguese does not for get what “paint the seven” holds: to make wonders. The ordinary mistakes it with “painting the town”: to make mischief]. For Almada, the expression represents an original ( ar - chaic ), timeless (that lasts ) sense of creating something special ( to make wonders ). Its relation to a numerical na - ture gives it a natural place in the canon. The drawings comprising this section are: ANSA-A-581, 583, 582, 585, 571 and 905. Figur e 3 | José de Almada Negreiros, drawings from Language of the Squar e , c. 1960. ANSA-A-581, ANSA-A-582 and ANSA-A-585, CEDANSA – NOV A FCSH / © Herdeiros de José de Almada Negreiros. The images in Figure 3 all have the number 7 written as an annotation. The annotations and also appear on the first and second images, respectively , along with an O at the end of the quarter circle. THE MA TERIALITY OF MODERNISMS 278 4. Double squar e and Relation 9/10 This section, which is lar ger in number , has a new feature: it proposes (approximate) geometric equalities involving the radius and the division of the circle into equal parts, which can be seen as “theorems”, for which the proof is visual 20 . In some of the drawings, the author presents his proposed equalities in writing. While up un - til now the drawings were based on a single square, these drawings stem from two adjacent squares, showing great symmetry in relation to the central vertical axis. The group is composed of drawings ANSA-A-891, 884, 588, 912, 597, 910 and 594. Figure 4 | José de Almada Negreiros, drawings from Language of the Squar e , c. 1960. ANSA-A-891, ANSA-A-884 and ANSA-A-588, CEDANSA – NOV A FCSH / © Herdeiros de José de Almada Negreiros. The first image in Figure 4 is entitled Relação 9/10 and presents the following equality: 20 Freitas, “The mathematics of Almada Negreiros”, 333-346. 2𝑟𝑟 = 2 𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑟𝑟𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐 𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑟𝑟𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑟𝑟𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐 9 + 𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑟𝑟𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐 𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑟𝑟𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑟𝑟𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐 10 2𝑟𝑟 = 2 ⊙ 9 + ⊙ 1 0   𝑟𝑟 5 , 𝑟𝑟 3 , 2𝑟𝑟 5 , 2𝑟𝑟 3  0𝑐𝑐 = 0′ ′ 𝑐𝑐 ′′ = ⊙ 9 2 + ⊙ 1 0 2 2  𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐 = ⊙ 9 𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐 = ⊙ 1 0 𝑐𝑐𝑎𝑎 = ⊙ 1 4    𝑐𝑐𝑎𝑎 = 𝑐𝑐𝑎𝑎 ′ = 𝑐𝑐 ′′ 𝑎𝑎 ′′ = 0 9   0 ′ 3 6 − 0 ′ 4 0 = 1 ° 0 ′ 1 8 − 0 ′ 2 0 = 2 ° 0 ′ 9 − 0 ′ 1 0 = 4 °  4 ( ⊙ 9 − ⊙ 1 0 ) = 𝑞𝑞 𝑞𝑞𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐 𝑟𝑟𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑞𝑞𝑐𝑐 9 0   2 ( ⊙ 9 − ⊙ 1 0 ) = 𝑞𝑞 𝑞𝑞𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐 𝑟𝑟𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐 𝑞𝑞 𝑐𝑐 4 5   ⊙ 9 − ⊙ 1 0 = ⊙ 9 0   𝑂𝑂𝑐𝑐 = 𝑞𝑞 𝑞𝑞𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐 𝑟𝑟𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐 𝑞𝑞 𝑐𝑐 − ⊙ 7 2   𝑐𝑐𝑎𝑎𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐 = 𝑐𝑐𝑟𝑟𝑞𝑞 𝑞𝑞 𝑐𝑐𝑞𝑞 𝑟𝑟𝑐𝑐𝑎𝑎𝑐𝑐   𝑐𝑐𝑎𝑎𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐 = 𝑐𝑐𝑟𝑟𝑞𝑞 𝑞𝑞 𝑐𝑐𝑞𝑞 𝑟𝑟𝑐𝑐𝑎𝑎𝑐𝑐   𝑔𝑔 ℎ = 1 0  ON A CRITICAL EDITION OF AN AR TIST’ S BOOK 279 W e also see the annotations O’ and O and the ends of the diameter , along with 10’ and 9 on the circle. In the second image, we see the following equalities: On the central diameter , we see the following marks: O’, a, b, O. On the circle, we have 7, b’, 9, 10. Finally , on the top left, we can read and a. The third image has the following annotations on the circle: 16’, O’, 16’, 8, O. 5. Bauhütte In his search for the canon, Almada singled out a few artefacts from art history and from universal culture in which he believed this canon’ s presence was more evident. Some of them are quoted in the collection, as is the case of the Point of the Bauhütte. This name refers to a four -verse stanza, which Almada found in a text by architect Ernest Mössel, quoted by Matila Ghyka, going back to a medie - val guild of masons called the Bauhütte. The stanza refers to a point, critical for the work of stone masons, which was kept a secret: A point in the Circle And which sits in the Square and the T riangle. Do you know the point? then all is right, Don’ t you know it? Then all is in vain. 21 21 Matila Ghyka, Le Nombr e d’or , vol. I Les rythmes (Paris: Librairie Gallimard, 1952), 72. In Ghyka’ s book the 2𝑟𝑟 = 2 𝑐𝑐 𝑐𝑐𝑟𝑟𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐 𝑐𝑐 𝑐𝑐𝑟𝑟𝑐𝑐 𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐 𝑐𝑐 𝑟𝑟𝑐𝑐 𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐 𝑐𝑐 9 + 𝑐𝑐 𝑐𝑐𝑟𝑟𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐 𝑐𝑐 𝑐𝑐𝑟𝑟𝑐𝑐 𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐 𝑐𝑐 𝑟𝑟𝑐𝑐 𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐 𝑐𝑐 1 0 2𝑟𝑟 = 2 ⊙ 9 + ⊙ 10   𝑟𝑟 5 , 𝑟𝑟 3 , 2𝑟𝑟 5 , 2𝑟𝑟 3  0𝑐𝑐 = 0′ ′ 𝑐𝑐 ′′ = ⊙ 9 2 + ⊙ 1 0 2 2  𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐 = ⊙ 9 𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐 = ⊙ 1 0 𝑐𝑐𝑎𝑎 = ⊙ 1 4    𝑐𝑐𝑎𝑎 = 𝑐𝑐𝑎𝑎 ′ = 𝑐𝑐 ′′ 𝑎𝑎 ′′ = 0 9   0 ′ 3 6 − 0 ′ 4 0 = 1 ° 0 ′ 1 8 − 0 ′ 2 0 = 2 ° 0 ′ 9 − 0 ′ 1 0 = 4 °  4 ( ⊙ 9 − ⊙ 1 0 ) = 𝑞𝑞 𝑞𝑞𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐 𝑟𝑟𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑞𝑞𝑐𝑐 9 0   2 ( ⊙ 9 − ⊙ 1 0 ) = 𝑞𝑞 𝑞𝑞𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐 𝑟𝑟𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐 𝑞𝑞 𝑐𝑐 4 5   ⊙ 9 − ⊙ 1 0 = ⊙ 9 0   𝑂𝑂𝑐𝑐 = 𝑞𝑞 𝑞𝑞𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐 𝑟𝑟𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐 𝑞𝑞 𝑐𝑐 − ⊙ 7 2   𝑐𝑐𝑎𝑎𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐 = 𝑐𝑐𝑟𝑟𝑞𝑞 𝑞𝑞 𝑐𝑐𝑞𝑞 𝑟𝑟𝑐𝑐𝑎𝑎𝑐𝑐   𝑐𝑐𝑎𝑎𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐 = 𝑐𝑐𝑟𝑟𝑞𝑞 𝑞𝑞 𝑐𝑐𝑞𝑞 𝑟𝑟𝑐𝑐𝑎𝑎𝑐𝑐   𝑔𝑔 ℎ = 1 0  𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎 𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎 𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎 𝑐𝑐 𝑐𝑐𝑎𝑎𝑐𝑐 𝑎𝑎𝑐𝑐𝑎𝑎 = 9 1 0     𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎 = 010  THE MA TERIALITY OF MODERNISMS 280 The stanza does not give a clear construction of the point. Almada understands it as referring to a point com - mon to a circle, a square, and a triangle, the two latter ones inscribed in the circle. The triangle obtained has proportions 3:4:5, which, for him, is a reference both to Pythagoras and to Egyptian land surveyors, who were be - lieved to use ropes with these proportions to obtain right triangles. Almada’ s construction was the theme of one of his black and white paintings of 1957 22 , with the same title, and reappears in the mural Começar of 1969 23 . This section is dedicated to this point, denoted by the Greek letters alpha and beta and related to rectangles of specific proportions, the division into equal parts and the measure of the radius of the circle. The drawings in this group are ANSA-A-580, 908, 610, 608, 919, 900 and 899. Figure 5 | José de Almada Negreiros, drawings from Language of the Squar e , c. 1960. ANSA-A-580, ANSA-A-908 and ANSA-A-900, CEDANSA – NOV A FCSH / © Herdeiros de José de Almada Negreiros. poem can be read in German, with a French translation. The English translation is by the authors. 22 https://gulbenkian.pt/cam/works_cam/o-ponto- de- bauhutte-139008/ [accessed on 19/02/2024.] 23 https://gulbenkian.pt/almada-comecar/explorar -o- painel/?slide=4 [accessed on on 19/02/2024]. ON A CRITICAL EDITION OF AN AR TIST’ S BOOK 281 The first image in Figure 5 presents the marks 7, α and O on the quarter circle. In the second image, we read O, β and α on the quarter circle, and the following equality: Oβ = βα The third image has the letter α marked twice on the quarter circle, along with the following annota - tions along the right side of the square: 6. T wo semicir cles and Relation 9/10 Opening this group of drawings, dedicated to the “Relation 9/10”, we have a construction (ANSA-A-609) that relates the division of the circumference into 9 and 10 equal parts with the golden section. In the following drawings, Almada applies the most important and recur - rent construction for the “Relation 9/10”, based on two semicircles (usually both in orange). This construction can also be seen in a black and white tile panel at the Saldanha metro station, in Lisbon24, precisely with the expression “Relation 9/10”, and is present more than once on the mu - ral Começar . The drawings in this group are ANSA-A-609, 913, 881, 893, 568, 882 and 596. 24 In the course of the metro station’ s major renova - tions in 2009, Almada’ s son, architect José Afonso de Almada Negreiros, was responsible for the tile decorations. 2𝑟𝑟 = 2 𝑐𝑐 𝑐𝑐𝑟𝑟𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐 𝑐𝑐 𝑐𝑐𝑟𝑟𝑐𝑐 𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐 𝑐𝑐 𝑟𝑟𝑐𝑐 𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐 𝑐𝑐 9 + 𝑐𝑐 𝑐𝑐𝑟𝑟𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐 𝑐𝑐 𝑐𝑐𝑟𝑟𝑐𝑐 𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐 𝑐𝑐 𝑟𝑟𝑐𝑐 𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐 𝑐𝑐 1 0 2𝑟𝑟 = 2 ⊙ 9 + ⊙ 1 0   𝑟𝑟 5 , 𝑟𝑟 3 , 2𝑟𝑟 5 , 2𝑟𝑟 3  0𝑐𝑐 = 0′ ′ 𝑐𝑐 ′′ = ⊙ 9 2 + ⊙ 1 0 2 2  𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐 = ⊙ 9 𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐 = ⊙ 1 0 𝑐𝑐𝑎𝑎 = ⊙ 1 4    𝑐𝑐𝑎𝑎 = 𝑐𝑐𝑎𝑎 ′ = 𝑐𝑐 ′′ 𝑎𝑎 ′′ = 0 9   0 ′ 3 6 − 0 ′ 4 0 = 1 ° 0 ′ 1 8 − 0 ′ 2 0 = 2 ° 0 ′ 9 − 0 ′ 1 0 = 4 °  4 ( ⊙ 9 − ⊙ 1 0 ) = 𝑞𝑞 𝑞𝑞𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐 𝑟𝑟𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑞𝑞𝑐𝑐 9 0   2 ( ⊙ 9 − ⊙ 1 0 ) = 𝑞𝑞 𝑞𝑞𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐 𝑟𝑟𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐 𝑞𝑞 𝑐𝑐 4 5   ⊙ 9 − ⊙ 1 0 = ⊙ 9 0   𝑂𝑂𝑐𝑐 = 𝑞𝑞 𝑞𝑞𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐 𝑟𝑟𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐 𝑞𝑞 𝑐𝑐 − ⊙ 7 2   𝑐𝑐𝑎𝑎𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐 = 𝑐𝑐𝑟𝑟𝑞𝑞 𝑞𝑞 𝑐𝑐𝑞𝑞 𝑟𝑟𝑐𝑐𝑎𝑎𝑐𝑐   𝑐𝑐𝑎𝑎𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐 = 𝑐𝑐𝑟𝑟𝑞𝑞 𝑞𝑞 𝑐𝑐𝑞𝑞 𝑟𝑟𝑐𝑐𝑎𝑎𝑐𝑐   𝑔𝑔 ℎ = 1 0  THE MA TERIALITY OF MODERNISMS 288 architrave and cornice of the temple’ s façade. Palmeirim and Freitas 26 propose that the author ’ s theory about this relation was developed in the years after this first instance and that at this time, only the proportion was noted, and later incorporated in a more expansive reasoning about the “Relation 9/10”. The drawings in this group are ANSA-A-903, 904, 886, 902, 909, 916 and 915. Figure 9 | José de Almada Negreiros, drawings from Language of the Squar e , c. 1960. ANSA-A-888 and ANSA-A-915, CEDANSA – NOV A FCSH / © Herdeiros de José de Almada Negreiros. In the first drawing of Figure 9, we see 9 and O along the semicircle. In the second drawing, a few horizontal red lines have letters marked: g, f, h on the top red line, a, b 26 Pedro Freitas and Simão Palmeirim, Almada Negr eir os e o Mosteir o da Batalha – Quinze pinturas primitivas num r etáb- ulo imaginado (Mosteiro da Batalha / Documenta, 2021). ON A CRITICAL EDITION OF AN AR TIST’ S BOOK 289 on the mid-red line and c, d on the lower red line. At the midpoint of the bottom side of the square, there is an e. W e then have the following equalities. The notes end with the expression “T esouro dos Atenienses em Delfos” [T reasury of the Athenians in Delphi]. Final notes Summarizing, the first section is introductory (cover , title page, and quotes), and then, seven topics can be sum - marized as follows: Section 2 shows the simplest ways to obtain the divi - sion of a circle into 9, 5, and 10 parts from an initial di - vision in 8 (consequence of 4, the square itself) and their relation with the golden rectangle. Section 3 builds on what was previously presented, dedicated to the division in 7 and relating to a Portuguese vernacular expression. Section 4 is a development of section 1, using a double square and carefully presenting the “Relation 9/10” (the original title of the collection). 2𝑟𝑟 𝑟 2𝑟 𝑟𝑟 𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟 𝑟𝑟 𝑐𝑐𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟 𝑟𝑟𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐 𝑐𝑐 𝑟𝑟𝑐𝑐 𝑐𝑐𝑟𝑟𝑐𝑐 𝑟𝑟 9 + 𝑟𝑟 𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟 𝑟𝑟 𝑐𝑐𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟 𝑟𝑟𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐 𝑐𝑐 𝑟𝑟𝑐𝑐 𝑐𝑐𝑟𝑟𝑐𝑐 𝑟𝑟 1 0 2𝑟𝑟 𝑟 2 ⊙ 9 + ⊙ 1 0 𝑟𝑟 5 , 𝑟𝑟 3 , 2𝑟𝑟 5 , 2𝑟𝑟 3 0𝑟𝑟 𝑟 0𝑎 𝑎 𝑟𝑟 𝑎𝑎 𝑟 ⊙ 9 2 + ⊙ 1 0 2 2 𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟 𝑟 ⊙ 9 𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟 𝑟 ⊙ 1 0 𝑟𝑟𝑎𝑎 𝑟 ⊙ 1 4 𝑟𝑟𝑎𝑎 𝑟 𝑟𝑟𝑎𝑎 𝑎 𝑟 𝑟𝑟 𝑎𝑎 𝑎𝑎 𝑎𝑎 𝑟 0 9  0 ′ 3 6 −0 ′ 4 0 𝑟 1 ° 𝑟0 ′ 1 8 −0 ′ 2 0 𝑟 2 ° 𝑟0 ′ 9 −0 ′ 1 0 𝑟 4 ° 4𝑟 ( ⊙ 9 − ⊙ 1 0 )𝑟 𝑞𝑞 𝑞𝑞𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟 𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑐𝑐𝑞𝑞𝑐𝑐 9 0 2 ( ⊙ 9 − ⊙ 1 0 )𝑟 𝑞𝑞 𝑞𝑞𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟 𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑐𝑐 𝑞𝑞 𝑐𝑐 4 5 ⊙ 9 − ⊙ 1 0 𝑟 ⊙ 9 0 𝑂𝑂𝑟𝑟 𝑟 𝑞𝑞 𝑞𝑞𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟 𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑐𝑐 𝑞𝑞 𝑐𝑐 − 𝑟 ⊙ 7 2 𝑟𝑟𝑎𝑎𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟 𝑟 𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑞𝑞𝑞𝑞𝑐𝑐𝑞𝑞𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑎𝑎𝑐𝑐  𝑟𝑟𝑎𝑎𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟 𝑟 𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑞𝑞 𝑞𝑞 𝑐𝑐𝑞𝑞 𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑟𝑎𝑎𝑐𝑐  𝑔𝑔 𝑔 𝑟 1 0  𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎 𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎 𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎 𝑐𝑐 𝑐𝑐𝑎𝑎𝑐𝑐 𝑎𝑎𝑐𝑐𝑎𝑎 = 9 1 0     𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎 = 0 1 0  𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎 = 𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐 = 𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎 = 𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎 = 𝑎𝑎𝑒𝑒 = 9  2𝑟𝑟 = 2 𝑐𝑐 𝑐𝑐𝑟𝑟𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐 𝑐𝑐 𝑐𝑐𝑟𝑟𝑐𝑐 𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐 𝑐𝑐 𝑟𝑟𝑐𝑐 𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐 𝑐𝑐 9 + 𝑐𝑐 𝑐𝑐𝑟𝑟𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐 𝑐𝑐 𝑐𝑐𝑟𝑟𝑐𝑐 𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐 𝑐𝑐 𝑟𝑟𝑐𝑐 𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐 𝑐𝑐 1 0 2𝑟𝑟 = 2 ⊙ 9 + ⊙ 1 0   𝑟𝑟 5 , 𝑟𝑟 3 , 2𝑟𝑟 5 , 2𝑟𝑟 3  0𝑐𝑐 = 0′ ′ 𝑐𝑐 ′′ = ⊙ 9 2 + ⊙ 1 0 2 2  𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐 = ⊙ 9 𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐 = ⊙ 1 0 𝑐𝑐𝑎𝑎 = ⊙ 1 4    𝑐𝑐𝑎𝑎 = 𝑐𝑐𝑎𝑎 ′ = 𝑐𝑐 ′′ 𝑎𝑎 ′′ = 0 9   0 ′ 3 6 − 0 ′ 4 0 = 1 ° 0 ′ 1 8 − 0 ′ 2 0 = 2 ° 0 ′ 9 − 0 ′ 1 0 = 4 °  4 ( ⊙ 9 − ⊙ 1 0 ) = 𝑞𝑞 𝑞𝑞𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐 𝑟𝑟𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑞𝑞𝑐𝑐 9 0   2 ( ⊙ 9 − ⊙ 1 0 ) = 𝑞𝑞 𝑞𝑞𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐 𝑟𝑟𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐 𝑞𝑞 𝑐𝑐 4 5   ⊙ 9 − ⊙ 1 0 = ⊙ 9 0   𝑂𝑂𝑐𝑐 = 𝑞𝑞 𝑞𝑞𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐 𝑟𝑟𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐 𝑞𝑞 𝑐𝑐 − ⊙ 7 2   𝑐𝑐𝑎𝑎𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐 = 𝑐𝑐𝑟𝑟𝑞𝑞 𝑞𝑞 𝑐𝑐𝑞𝑞 𝑟𝑟𝑐𝑐𝑎𝑎𝑐𝑐   𝑐𝑐𝑎𝑎𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐 = 𝑐𝑐𝑟𝑟𝑞𝑞 𝑞𝑞 𝑐𝑐𝑞𝑞 𝑟𝑟𝑐𝑐𝑎𝑎𝑐𝑐   𝑔𝑔ℎ = 10  𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎𝑎 𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑐𝑎𝑎𝑐𝑐𝑎𝑎𝑐𝑐𝑎𝑎 = 9 10     THE MA TERIALITY OF MODERNISMS 290 Section 5 uses a medieval cultural reference as a central theme that relates to several of the previous geometrical propositions. Section 6 is again dedicated to the “Relation 9/10”, in its most succinct geometrical tracing, one that is recurrent in many of Almada’ s projects and presents an unprecedent - ed approximation of an impossible geometrical challenge. Sections 7 and 8 are dedicated to two geometrical el- ements that show new connections to all the previously presented tracings. The distribution of the chosen drawings along the sec - tions is described in the following table. section 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 no. of drawings 13 5 6 7 7 7 4 9 8 7 W e have thus included in this proposed edition 73 draw - ings, out of a total of 128. The ones that were left out are either incomplete (lacking color , for instance) scratched out with graphite or markers, lack coherence with the rest of the works, or are very similar to pieces already selected. W e consider that the drawings we included in this propos - al, in this order , to constitute a representative selection of the visual and geometric ideas of the collection. Conclusion These drawings comprise a previously unorganized, cohesive, and extensive collection. W ith this critical edi - tion, we propose they should be seen as an artist’ s book — even if unfinished — in which Almada collects and presents many of his ideas about the canon, in a visually elegant fashion, with great aesthetic care. As opposed to Almada’ s main title Relation 9/10 (an expression he ex - tensively uses in hundreds of other notebooks, artworks or ON A CRITICAL EDITION OF AN AR TIST’ S BOOK 291 drawings), the original subtitle Language of the Squar e is not only seldom used, but better reflects the central point of the collection: a set of geometrical topics within which Almada presents progressively more complex drawings, all stemming from an initial premise. This premise – a cir - cle inscribed in a square – is then developed in two central recurrent geometrical concerns: the division of the circle into equal parts and the construction of rectangles with specific proportions, developing relations between these elements. Almada gave interviews and published works on the subject of the canon, he also summarized his propositions one year prior to his death in the panel Começar . However , none of these attempts to communicate his theory would be sufficiently clear , if not for his notebooks, because his ideas are based on a visual, geometrically obtained knowl - edge. Language of the Squar e introduces the reader to the specific vocabulary he uses to reach knowledge. Instead of textual explanations or ar guments on the canon (title page: “no text / no enigma / no calculus / no opinion”), Almada describes the canon and its properties in detail, with these geometrical drawings. The Relation 9/10 , a synonym for the canon, in this book, has the most appropriate – visual – vocabulary for its definition. In terms of geometric con - tent, the drawings presented here can be compared to those included in notebooks, but far exceed them in visual im - pact and clarity of presentation, besides a now clear pro - gressive construction of knowledge. In fact, broadly viewed, we can say Almada’ s geomet - ric work in this collection resembles a mathematical trea - tise, in the sense that it exposes ideas sequentially and cu - mulatively , presenting solutions to the problem he posed to himself: how to relate, harmoniously and elegantly , the elements of the canon. In this endeavour , Almada uses the age-old Greek method of ruler and compass constructions, just like mathematicians have also done to a large extent. THE MA TERIALITY OF MODERNISMS 292 This mathematical discourse, which is very interesting in itself (especially because it is proposed by an artist), is pre - sented here in the form of an artist’ s book, which, as we have said, transforms the geometric discourse in art. What makes this book transcend the status of a mathematical manual is precisely its materiality: the use of colors, the consistency and quality of the paper , the graphic materi - als, the careful finish and the global visual coherence of this set of drawings. W e thus propose that Language of the Squar e should be looked at as an artist’ s book, which is now possible to read. This collection deserves to be appreciated both for its undeniable artistic value, in the context of geometric ab - stractionism, but also as the statement and materialization of an idea, powerfully delivered. Acknowledgements The authors wish to thank the family of Almada Negreiros, namely Catarina and Rita Almada Negreiros, for the possibility of studying the documents and drawings in the estate. Simão Palmeirim is a member of the Institute for the Study of Literature and T radition – Heritage, Arts and Cultures, financed by National Funds through FCT – Foundation for Science and T echnology under the project UID/00657. Pedro Freitas is a member of Centro Interuniversitário de História e Filosofia das Ciências, which is financed by Fundação para a Ciência e a T ecnologia, I.P ./MCTES through national funds (PIDDAC). UIDB/00286/2020; UIDP/00286/2020. ON A CRITICAL EDITION OF AN AR TIST’ S BOOK 293 Bibliography Pedro Freitas and Simão Palmeirim, “A geometria que Almada leu. Fontes bibliográficas para a compreensão do vo - cabulário geométrico tardio de Almada Negreiros”, Revista de História da Sociedade e da Cultura 20(2020): 283-298. (DOI: 10.14195/1645-2259_20_13). Pedro Freitas and Simão Palmeirim, Almada Negr eir os e o Mosteir o da Batalha - Quinze pinturas primitivas num r etábulo imaginado (Batalha / Lisboa: Mosteiro da Batalha / Documenta, 2021). Pedro Freitas, “The mathematics of Almada Negreiros”, Journal of Mathematics and the Arts 17.3-4 (2023): 333-346 (DOI: 10.1080/17513472.2023.2236005). Pedro J. Freitas and Simão Palmeirim Costa, “Almada Negreiros and the Geometric Canon”, Journal of Mathematics and the Arts 9.1-2 (2015): 27-36. Pedro J. Freitas and Simão Palmeirim, “The Pentagram and the Golden Angle in Almada Negreiros’ Mural Começar ”, Pr oceedings of Bridges 2018: Mathematics, Art, Music, Ar chitectur e, Education, Cultur e (2018): 203-210. Matyla Ghyka, Le Nombr e d’or , vol. I Les rythmes (Paris: Librairie Gallimard, 1952). Orlando Neves, Dicionário das Origens das Frases Feitas (Porto: Lello & Irmão - Editores, 1992). Simão Palmeirim Costa and Pedro J. Freitas, Livr o de Pr oblemas de Almada Negr eir os (Lisboa: Sociedade Portuguesa de Matemática, 2015), coleção Leituras em Matemática, vol.14. Simão Palmeirim, “Almada Negreiros and Le Corbusier . Parallel methodologies and critical reception”, RIHA Journal 0316 (2024). António V aldemar , Almada. Os painéis, a geometria e tudo – as entr evistas com António V aldemar (Lisboa: Assírio e Alvim, 2015). I sa bel F . Sar gen to - Diogo R. F errei r a SEARCHING FOR THE POETIC IMAGER Y OF CESÁRIO VERDE Intr oduction Cesário V erde (1855–1886) is often considered to be a precursor of Portuguese modernism, as he stands at the transition between romanticism and modernism in nine- teenth century poetry and his poetry features bold and clear modernist traits 1 . His poems are characterized by a perfected structure and powerful visual imagery . The strength of his images has been repeatedly (albeit posthu- mously) recognized as a decisive factor in the emer gence of modernist poetry in Portuguese. In this work, we aim to demonstrate how the poetic works of Cesário V erde contain the power to awaken the visual imagination of the reader , thus fitting largely into the phanopoeia category , as established by Ezra Pound. For this purpose and using the poem In the Afternoon [ De T ar de ] as a starting point, we present two different approaches – namely , image search and image generation – to obtain visual representa- tions from its verses. Through this process, we show that the poem is full of visual references that can be directly portrayed, either by real or synthetic images. The imag- es capture the visual elements and the main scenes in the storyline. The fact that such imagery can be obtained in an automated way suggests that its aesthetic and visual appeal must come from the poem itself and not from the process 1 Óscar Lopes, “Cesário V erde ou do Romantismo ao Modernismo”, in Entr e Fialho e Nemésio II (Lisboa: Imprensa Nacional Casa da Moeda, 1987), 472-473. THE MA TERIALITY OF MODERNISMS 296 of transforming poetry into images. Before delving deeper into these questions, we start with a brief biographical note on the poet, since several aspects of his life marked his entire poetic work. As Figueiredo pointed out: “His dis- creet existence as a downtown shopkeeper , as a suburban gentleman-farmer , is reflected in his poetry” 2 . Cesário V er de: a short biography Cesário V erde was born in Lisbon, in 1855. His life al- ternated between Lisbon and its countryside, as his family had a hardware store downtown, and a farm in a rural lo- cation known as Linda-a-Pastora in the outskirts. His po- etic activity developed in parallel with a daily job at his father ’ s store, where he became a business correspondent at the age of seventeen 3 . W ith a great poetic originality , he developed an aesthetic sensibility when wandering through the city , while also nurturing a sense of wonder towards nature and the rural landscape he contemplated in the countryside. However , he distanced himself from the prevailing romantic standards at the time and shocked his contemporaries with a singular and avant-garde ap- proach to poetry . This aroused the displeasure of sever - al literary critics, often being misunderstood, derided, or simply ignored. Nevertheless, his work was set to open the doors to the modernism of twentieth century poets, such as Mário de Sá Carneiro, who called him “the futurist Cesário V erde” 4 , or Fernando Pessoa, who heralded him as 2 João Pinto de Figueiredo, A vida de Cesário V er de pref. and poem sel. David Mourão-Ferreira (Lisboa: Presença, 1986), 1 1, our translation. 3 See Joel Serrão, “Tábua Biobibliográfica de Cesário V erde”, Colóquio Letras 93 (Lisboa: Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, 1986): 5-19, 8. 4 Pedro da Silveira, “Cesário V erde visto hoje por poetas portugueses”, Colóquio Letras 93 (Lisboa: Fundação Calouste SEARCHING FOR THE POETIC IMAGER Y 297 one of his masters: “Oh Cesário V erde, oh Master / Oh of the ‘Feeling of a W esterner ’!” [Ó Cesário V erde, ó Mestre | Ó do “Sentimento de um Ocidental”!] 5 and as the one who taught him to “observe in verse”: Only three poets in Portugal in the nineteenth and twen- tieth centuries can be referred to as “master”. They are Antero de Quental, Cesário V erde, and Camilo Pessanha […] The second taught to observe in verse. 6 Lourenço highlighted Cesário V erde’ s influence on Pessoa, in his two heteronyms Álvaro de Campos and Alberto Caeiro: […] the immediate influence of Cesário was experi - enced by Pessoa, and in fact this influence, or rather this W irkung , has two component parts: on one hand, the spiritual attitude of Álvaro de Campos as a dandy and as an urban poet presupposes that of Cesário; and, on the other hand, the transition to pastoral poetry in the last phase of Cesário V erde’ s production (1881-1886) was not only followed but reformulated by the pastoral poet of Modernism, Alberto Caeiro. 7 Cesário V erde died in 1886, at the age of thirty-one, from tuberculosis. Gulbenkian, 1986): 1 1 1-1 12, 1 12, our translation. 5 Fernando Pessoa, Poesias de Álvar o de Campos (Lisboa: Ática, 1993 [1944]), 160, our translation. 6 Fernando Pessoa, Páginas sobr e Literatura e Estética (Mem-Martins: Publicações Europa-América, 1994), 126, our translation. 7 M. S. Lourenço, Os Degraus do Parnaso (Lisboa: Assírio & Alvim, 2002), 107, our translation. THE MA TERIALITY OF MODERNISMS 304 The connection between poetry and painting is, more- over , a theme that has been addressed since antiquity . In Of the Fame of the Athenians [ De gloria Atheniensium ] by Plutarch, Simonides “calls painting inarticulate poetry and poetry articulate painting” 24 , and Horace, in Art of Poetry , again establishes the relationship between the two arts, by stating: “For poems are like pictures” [Ut pictura poesis] 25 . Therefore, we can easily associate Cesário V erde’ s visual imagery with impressionist painting, whose aes- thetics was in part a consequence of the evolution of phil- osophical thought since the late eighteenth century . This was evident especially after the publication of Kant’ s Critique of Pur e Reason in 1781. This revolutionary work brought about a profound change in the understanding of our access to the phenomenal world. The act of under- standing became subject to the experience of sensitivity , that is, to the way in which we are affected by that which is outside of us, precisely by our senses, in space and time 26 . Since Cesário V erde’ s poetry is largely a manifestation of sensations and/or impressions, it is not surprising that it presents several affinities with impressionist painting, see - ing that the experience from which both result is based on similar stimuli. The relationship with painting is suggested by the poet himself, when he uses a vocabulary that is allusive to con- crete materials or practices typical of painting in some of the verses, as in the case of “It would do nonetheless for a watercolour” [Em todo o caso dava uma aguarela] from the poem In the Afternoon [ De T ar de ], “From the retouched 24 Plutarch, “De gloria Atheniensium” in Plutar ch, Moralia , Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1936), vol. IV : 501. 25 Horace, Art of Poetry (Boston: Ginn and Company , 1892), 27. 26 See Immanuel Kant, Critique of Pur e Reason (New Y ork: Cambridge University Press, 1998), 155-57. SEARCHING FOR THE POETIC IMAGER Y 305 canvasses of memory” [Das telas da memória retocadas], and “Portraits I paint out of letters, out of signs” [Pinto quadros por letras, por sinais] from the poem We [ Nós ]. Even the criticism of his contemporaries, by Fialho de Almeida’ s words, used the term “ pochade ” when referring to his poem In a Modern Neighbour hood [ Num bairr o moderno ] 27 . Starting precisely from this term “ pochade ”, Figueiredo gives us a more well-founded idea of the strong relationship that exists between Cesário V erde’ s poetry – “an impressionist vision of reality” 28 – and impressionist painting, even questioning whether Cesário V erde would have had access to it and whether it would have inspired him. His conclusion is however that it would have been very unlikely that Cesário V erde would have had contact with impressionist painting, and he attributes a more intu- itive character to this aesthetic tendency . Figueiredo also talked of an “apparently surrealist vi- sion” 29 – just as Macedo referred to “grotesque” and “sur - real” 30 elements as being part of Cesário V erde’ s imagery . This emer ged when considering the anthropomorphism of vegetables that takes place in the same poem, reminiscent of the painting by the sixteenth century artist Arcimboldo, and which is spelled out by the poet as stemming from his artist’ s vision: Suddenly – an artist’ s vision! – What if I transformed the simple vegetables, By the light of that fierce colourist, the sun, Into a living, moving human being, 27 See Pinto de Figueiredo, A vida de Cesário V er de , 100. 28 Pinto de Figueiredo, A vida de Cesário V er de , 100, our translation. 29 Pinto de Figueiredo, A vida de Cesário V er de , 102, our translation. 30 Macedo, Nós, uma leitura de Cesário V er de , 22, our translation. THE MA TERIALITY OF MODERNISMS 306 Bodied in shapely proportions?! [Subitamente, – que visão de artista! – Se eu transformasse os simples vegetais, À luz do sol, o intenso colorista, Num ser humano que se mova e exista Cheio de belas proporções carnais?!] The multiplicity of perception in the reality reflected in his work, is the result of an extremely refined intuition that covers his “realism with a basically naturalistic in- tention” 31 . Among these precursor traits are his “transfig - uring metaphors”, that would become Pessoa’ s intersec- tionism in the twentieth century . As Óscar Lopes points out, Cesário V erde did in poetry what the Cubists would later do: […] what the poet obtains is (in a nutshell) the alternation and final fusion between an analytically drawn image (a blacksmith works a hammer , dogs resemble wolves) and another image, of a simple global, syncretic stain, of red or yellow colour , in a kind of impressionism that, instead of proceeding by juxtaposing simple colours, goes over to the incoincidence of design and colour , as the Cubists (and our literary “intersectionists” will later do). 32 W e find, therefore, several affinities between his poet - ic creation and various pictorial languages, be they con- temporary , past or future. In addition to these aesthetic affinities, we can also find a thematic influence that some paintings had on the poet. This is the case of Courbet’ s work The Stone Br eakers which, according to Figueiredo, 31 Lopes, “Cesário V erde ou do Romantismo ao Modernismo”, 466, our translation. 32 Lopes, “Cesário V erde ou do Romantismo ao Modernismo”, 467, our translation. SEARCHING FOR THE POETIC IMAGER Y 307 inspired the poem Crystallizations [ Cristalizações ] 33 . Figueiredo also established a relationship between his poem Resplendent [ Esplêndida ] and the watercolours of the painter Constantin Guys, whom Baudelaire called “The painter of modern life” [ Le peintr e de la vie mod- ern ] 34 . However , we argue that his poetry is largely based on sensation and that he reproduces environments that are mostly bright and clear , which brings his work closer to impressionism. Classification as phanopoeia According to Ezra Pound, poetry is the most concen- trated form of verbal expression, as poetic language is loaded with meanings that come not only from the roots or use of words, but also from associations 35 . Pound thus defined a classification for poetic language, according to the form of inspiration that originated them, and which is reflected in the type of sensory perception triggered in the reader , as follows: • Phanopoeia – Poetry that relies on the visual power of images. Pound describes this medium as “throw- ing the object (fixed or moving) into the visual im - agination”, i.e. “a casting of images upon the visual imagination”. • Melopoeia – Poetry based on the creation of sound effects inducing emotional correspondences through the sound and rhythm of speech. • Logopoeia – Poetry that uses words beyond their direct meaning, inducing both effects above by stimulating associations (intellectual or emotional) 33 See Pinto de Figueiredo, A vida de Cesário V er de , 67. 34 Pinto de Figueiredo , A vida de Cesário V er de , 67, our translation. 35 See Ezra Pound, ABC of Reading (London: Faber and Faber , 1991), 36. THE MA TERIALITY OF MODERNISMS 308 that remain in the receiver ’ s consciousness in rela- tion to the words employed 36 . Due to the considerable visual power of Cesário V erde’ s imagery discussed above, his poetry naturally fits into what Ezra Pound called phanopoeia . It is true that Cesário V erde’ s poetry also contains aspects of refined auditory perception (“And iron and stone – what a sonorous union! – / Ring loudly through space” [E o ferro e a pedra – que união Sonora! – / Retinem alto pelo espaço fora]). And as Lourenço points out 37 , the form itself – the Alexandrian meter – which in the poet’ s case, is sometimes embodied in the use of the staccato. These elements prevent it from being exhausted in the phanopoeia classification. Hence, it can also be inserted in melopoeia . However , since the object of our study is visual imagery , we will not go ahead with the development of this last idea. It is, therefore, in this context that we advance to the next point, where we apply a more technologically oriented approach. W e ob- tain a sequence of visual images whose aesthetic appeal and order of presentation, more than the pictorial accura- cy , resemble the awe provoked by the original poem, thus confirming its classification as phanopoeia . The visual imagery of a sample poem In this work, we explore two options for generating visual representations of Cesário V erde’ s poetry: one is to search for images (in an image bank, database, or website) based on keywords extracted from verses; the other is to resort to the latest developments in artificial intelligence (specifically text-to-image synthesis) to generate synthetic 36 See Pound, ABC of r eading , 63. 37 See Lourenço, Os Degraus do Parnaso , 121. SEARCHING FOR THE POETIC IMAGER Y 309 images from verses. For this purpose, we use a specific poem as an example. Perhaps the simplest, shortest, and most direct example of a poem that can be visually portrayed or , in this case, re- imagined as an impressionist painting, is In the Afternoon [ De T ar de ]. A literal translation of the poem could read as follows 38 : At that bour geois ladies’ picnic, there was something just beautiful, and which, without history or grandeur , in any case would do for a watercolour . It was when you, getting off the donkey , went to pick, without putting on silly airs, from a blue field of chickpea a red bunch of poppies. Soon after , on top of some cliffs, we camped, the sun was still out; and there were slices of melon, apricots, and sponge cake soaked in malmsey . But, all purple, peeking out of the lace of your two breasts like two turtledoves, it was the supreme charm of the picnic the red bouquet of poppies! In the first stanza, the poem describes a bourgeois la - dies’ picnic that can be pictured as a watercolour . In the second stanza, there is a scene of a lady hopping off a don - key and picking red poppies from a blue field of chickpea. 38 This English translation of the original poem in Portuguese is the responsibility of the authors. A slightly dif- ferent translation can be found in The Book of Cesário V er de & Other Poems (Lisbon Poets & Co., 2016), 170-171. THE MA TERIALITY OF MODERNISMS 310 In the third stanza, they are camping under the sunset, and having a varied luncheon. In the fourth and final stanza, the climax is achieved as the bunch of red poppies rests over her breast, amid that countryside landscape. The first approach that we explored to produce a visual representation of the elements in the poem is to select the keywords from each verse, and use them as search terms to look for related images on an image website, Unsplash 39 . The choice of keywords can be done automatically by removing well-known stop words (such as “the”, “it”, “that”, “and”, “on”, etc.) and keeping the rest as candidate search terms. However , the results can often be improved by manually selecting a subset of those search terms. From the poem shown above, we selected a minimal- istic set of keywords from each verse, by keeping only those terms that seemed to be necessary to obtain relevant images: At that bour geois ladies’ picnic , there was something just beautiful , and which, without history or grandeur , in any case would do for a water colour . It was when you, getting off the donkey , went to pick , without putting on silly airs, from a blue field of chickpea a re d bunch of poppies . Soon after , on top of some cliffs , we camped, the sun was still out; and there were slices of melon , apricots , and sponge cake soaked in malmsey . 39 In this work, we use Unsplash (unsplash.com) due to its permissive license in terms of image reuse (https://unsplash. com/license). SEARCHING FOR THE POETIC IMAGER Y 31 1 But, all purple, peeking out of the lace of your two breasts like two turtledoves , it was the supreme charm of the picnic the red bouquet of poppies! When searching for images based on these sparse key- words, many different types of results may appear . While it would be possible, for the sake of simplicity , to take the first image retrieved from the website, it is often the case that a more interesting candidate can be found among the search results. This is a second instance (with the first being the choice of keywords) where manual selection can play a role in improving the quality of the results. Following this procedure, the images that were picked from the website, using the selected keywords for each verse, are shown in Figure 1. In this figure, each image corresponds to an individual verse, and each row depicts the four verses in each stan- za. It is important to distinguish between the aesthetics of each image and the aesthetics of the sequence of images: while each image, taken per se , depends on the source of images that we use, the sequence of images should have an apparent relationship to the poem. In fact, the photo- graphic themes of these pictures might seem disparate at first, but the collation of four images in each row , when considered together with the sequence of rows, enables a view of the sixteen images as a whole that is reminiscent of the main ideas in the poem. A picnic portrayed as a wa- tercolour; picking red poppies from a blue field; camping under the sunlight; and a feminine figure in a countryside landscape – these are some of the ideas that are present in the poem and can be recognized in the images of Figure 1. Perhaps a noticeable exception is the more suggestive content at the beginning of the fourth stanza, where we omitted some keywords to avoid inappropriate images. THE MA TERIALITY OF MODERNISMS 312 Figure 1 | Images retrieved from Unsplash, using the selected search keywords. (Photos by: Svetlana Kuznetsova; Irina Iriser; Claudio T esta; Kseniya Lapteva; TS Sergey; Gigi; Aki Nakazawa; V era De; Ruben Gutierrez; Jordan W ozniak; Ai Feng Hsiung; Portuguese Gravity; Nareeta Martin; Bruno Oliveira; Kate Hliznitsova; Gleb Albovsky). In any case, the realization that the ideas in a nineteenth century poem can be illustrated by a sequence of contem- porary photographs attests to the visual nature of such po- etry , and it further suggests that the poem could possibly be illustrated with different pictures, as long as their con - tent and sequence bear a relationship to those ideas. The visualization is not unique, but any visualization of such a sequence of ideas should be able to remind us of the ele- ments in the poem. T o demonstrate this point, we turn to SEARCHING FOR THE POETIC IMAGER Y 313 a different approach to generate the visual imagery for the poem, using artificial intelligence. Image synthesis via artificial intelligence In the last decade, there has been an explosion in the development of artificial intelligence techniques and their applications, with far -reaching implications in technology and in the arts, in science, and in society at lar ge. It is by no means our goal to review the recent progress in that field, but we would like to focus on a particular topic that is of special interest for this study: image synthesis/generation. During 2022, in the span of only a few months, three companies released artificial intelligence models that have revolutionized the possibilities of image genera- tion. In April 2022, OpenAI announced DALL-E 2 40 ; in May 2022, Google Research announced Imagen; 41 and in August 2022, Stability AI released Stable Diffusion 42 . All of these models incorporated the latest developments in artificial intelligence to produce photorealistic images from a given text input. 40 Aditya Ramesh, Prafulla Dhariwal, Alex Nichol, Casey Chu, Mark Chen, “Hierarchical T ext-Conditional Image Generation with CLIP Latents”, arXiv 2204.06125 (2022). 41 Chitwan Saharia, W illiam Chan, Saurabh Saxena, Lala Li, Jay Whang, Emily Denton, Seyed Kamyar Seyed Ghasemipour , Burcu Karagol A yan, S. Sara Mahdavi, Rapha Gontijo Lopes, T im Salimans, Jonathan Ho, David J. Fleet, Mohammad Norouzi, “Photorealistic T ext-to-Image Diffusion Models with Deep Language Understanding”, arXiv 2205.1 1487 (2022). 42 Robin Rombach, Andreas Blattmann, Dominik Lorenz, Patrick Esser , Björn Ommer , “High-Resolution Image Synthesis with Latent Diffusion Models”, arXiv 21 12.10752 (2022), and online at https://stability .ai/stablediffusion. THE MA TERIALITY OF MODERNISMS 320 _______, “Cesário V erde, o bucolista do realismo”, Colóquio Letras 93 (Lisboa: Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, 1986): 20-28. Rosa Maria Martelo, “Metáfora e imagem perceptiva na po- esia de Cesário V erde” in O Cinema da Poesia ( Lisboa: Sistema Solar CRL / Documenta, 2017). Fernando Pessoa, Páginas sobr e Literatura e Estética , org., intro. and notes António Quadros (Mem-Martins: Publicações Europa-América 1994), 126. _______, Poesias de Álvar o de Campos (Lisboa: Ática, [1993] 1944). Ezra Pound, ABC of Reading (London: Faber and Faber , 1991). Plutarch, “De gloria Atheniensium”, in Plutar ch, Moralia , Loeb Classical Library , trans. F . C. Babbitt (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1936), vol. IV . Aditya Ramesh, Prafulla Dhariwal, Alex Nichol, Casey Chu, Mark Chen, “Hierarchical T ext-Conditional Image Generation with CLIP Latents”, arXiv 2204.06125 (2022). Robin Rombach, Andreas Blattmann, Dominik Lorenz, Patrick Esser , Björn Ommer , “High-Resolution Image Synthesis with Latent Diffusion Models”, arXiv 21 12.10752 (2022). Chitwan Saharia, W illiam Chan, Saurabh Saxena, Lala Li, Jay Whang, Emily Denton, Seyed Kamyar Seyed Ghasemipour , Burcu Karagol A yan, S. Sara Mahdavi, Rapha Gontijo Lopes, T im Salimans, Jonathan Ho, David J. Fleet, Mohammad Norouzi, “Photorealistic T ext-to-Image Diffusion Models with Deep Language Understanding”, arXiv 2205.1 1487 (2022). Joel Serrão, Cesário V er de: Interpr etação, poesias dispersas e cartas (Lisboa: Delfos, 1961). Joel Serrão, “Tábua Biobibliográfica de Cesário V erde”, Colóquio Letras 93 (Lisboa: Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, 1986): 5-19. Pedro da Silveira, “Cesário V erde visto hoje por poetas portugueses”, Colóquio Letras 93 (Lisboa: Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, 1986): 1 1 1-1 12. Cesário V erde, Obra Completa de Cesário V er de , org., pref. and notes Joel Serrão (Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, 1983). _______, O Livr o de Cesário V er de e Outr os Poemas (Lisboa: Penguin Clássicos, 2021). SEARCHING FOR THE POETIC IMAGER Y 321 _______, The Book of Cesário V er de & Other Poems , trans. Austen Hyde (Lisboa: Lisbon Poets & Co., 2016). AR T ’S MA TERIALS, PROCESSES , AND VISIONS H annah D e C or te HIS AND HER MA TERIALS . LOOKING A T CAMILLE PISSARRO’ S JULIE PISSARRO SEWING BESIDE A WINDOW AND THE F ABRIC OF IMPRESSIONIST P AINTING Intr oduction In the last three decades of the nineteenth century , ma- jor changes occurred in painters’ materials. In W estern Europe, the availability and preference for certain types of canvas and canvas preparation changed 1 . Painters be- gan using absorbent canvases (the French words T oile ab- sorbante often feature on the back of paintings). So-called absorbent canvases actually feature an absorbent prepara- tory layer on the canvas (also called priming or ground 2 ): whilst typically preparatory layers insulate the fibres of the canvas in several layers, absorbent canvases are only 1 In canvas painting, a “preparation” coats the fabric of the canvas to prepare it for the application of paint layers. It fills the pores, decreases absorption by the fibres of the canvas, while increasing the adherence of the paint. For an overview of the most common grounds, their function and terminology in W estern painting, see Joyce Hill Stoner and Rebecca Rushfield, “ Grounds. 1400 - 1900 ”, in Conservation of Easel Paintings (London: Routledge, 2012): 161-185; Maartje Stols-W itlox, “ The Preparatory System ” , in Historical Recipes for Pr eparatory Layers for Oil Paintings in Manuals, Manuscripts and Handbooks in North W est Eur ope, 1550-1900: Analysis and Reconstructions (University of Amsterdam, 2014, doctoral thesis): 67-74. 2 ‘ Ground’ and ‘preparation’ are more generic terms to refer to preparatory layers, while ‘primer ’ is a type of preparato- ry layer(s) applied habitually over a ‘size’. THE MA TERIALITY OF MODERNISMS 326 lightly primed, often in a single layer , so as to retain the grainy texture of an unprimed canvas ground but still en- sure a minimum of protection to the canvas fibres from the oil paint and the final painting. The thin priming also allows painters to rely on the light that comes through the paint, from the lightly colored ground; the irregular texture scatters the reflected light from the white or pale grounds, generating an overall soft and pastel effect 3 . This counter- acts the darker undertones of linen, cotton and hemp, the most common fibres for painters’ canvases at the end of the nineteenth century , in W estern Europe. T o compensate for the lack of priming, they also mixed their colors with lar ge amounts of light-reflective lead white 4 . By the early 1870s, with the exception of Edgar Degas (1834-1917, French) and Pierre Auguste Renoir (1841- 1919, French), the favoured preparation choice for paint- ers’ canvases became grainy . It is the single most consis- tent characteristic of Impressionist surfaces 5 . They were now single-primed à grain 6 instead of smooth (or lisse – as advertised by the French colormen) as they had been before 1870, for painters like Claude Monet (1840-1926, French), Berthe Morisot (1841-1895, French), and Camille Pissarro (1830-1903, Danish-French) 7 . Many (Post-)Impressionists, including artists such as Monet, Geor ges Seurat (1859-1891, French), Mary 3 David Anfam and Anthea Callen, T echniques of the Gr eat Masters of Art. T echniques of the Impr essionists (London: Quantum Books, 2000), 162. 4 Anfam and Callen, T echniques of the Gr eat Masters of Art , 162. 5 Anthea Callen, The Art of Impr essionism. Painting T echnique and the Making of Modernity (New Haven and London: Y ale University Press, 2000), 33. 6 Callen, The Art of Impr essionism , 33; Stoner and Rushfield, “Grounds. 1400-1900”, 140, 261-262. 7 Anfam and Callen, 160. HIS AND HER MA TERIALS 327 Cassatt (1844-1926, American), and Paul Cézanne (1839- 1906, French), were influenced by Camille Pissarro who was using un- and lightly primed canvases as early as 1873 8 . From 1870 and into the 1880s, Monet and Pissarro also chose types of canvases with particular weaves, that “emphasi[zed] the work’ s materiality” 9 . The grain became noticeable in many paintings. It can be observed in vari- ous ways and places, including slivers of brownish canvas appearing around the painted area, as in many of Monet’ s paintings. It can also emer ge between individual brush- strokes and even within the brushstrokes themselves, scat- tering the paint, in which case, the paint strokes are broken up by the brush dragging over the nubuck of the canvas. W ith little to no preparatory layers, in direct contact with paint – especially dry and somewhat stiff paint, applied with a bristle brush 10 – the canvas can color and textur - ize the entire surface of a picture. It can even mould the paint in a quasi-sculptural manner , dividing it into small- er bits of matter , based on the canvas weave’ s pattern: from broad strokes to ‘pointillist’ spots, subdividing the painter ’ s touche into tiny dots. Other supports that (Post-) Impressionist painters used, like cardboard, wood, and textured paper also show that they were attentive to the contact between image and support. On canvas, the appli- cation of paint is often such that the fabric weave appears across the whole surface, the image emer ging from the ground – a topography which Joyce Hill Stoner termed “weavism” in relation to Whistler ’ s paintings 11 . 8 Steven Kern, The Clark: Selections fr om the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute (New Y ork: Hudson Hills Press, 1996), 62. 9 Stoner and Rushfield, “Grounds. 1400-1900”, 140. 10 Anfam and Callen, T echniques of the Gr eat Masters of Art , 161. 11 Joyce Hill Stoner , T extur ed Surfaces: T echnique, Factur e, and Friendship in the W ork of James Mcneill Whistler THE MA TERIALITY OF MODERNISMS 328 During the same period, painters like Monet, Degas, Paul Cézanne, and especially Pissarro, were against var - nishing their paintings 12 . Instead they opted for different finishes, favouring a matte appearance and the application of paint in very few layers 13 . In the late 1870s, painters also began to favour square canvases, for the very reasons that usually discourage their use: the square format en- hances the sense of flatness 14 , pressing the subjects close to the picture’ s surface. Their choices contrasted with the traditional Renaissance painting format which features multiple lay- ers of preparation (which insulates the canvas from the paint), paint and varnish. If painters were looking to di- verse sources and traditions like early Italian paintings and Japanese prints for matte renderings and a more shallow pictorial space 15 , they turned to unprimed or lightly primed (‘absorbent’) canvas for similar reasons. In essence, the presence of canvas on the surface of their paintings aligns with other modern technical choices like relinquishing varnish, utilizing new paints directly from the tube, adopt- ing both new and traditional techniques that resulted in a chalky and matte finish. Paradoxically , matte finishes (tex - tured, without varnish), much like the pervading canvas (University of Delaware, 1995, doctoral thesis). Joyce Hill Stoner , “Whistler ’ s V iews on the Restoration and Display of His Paintings”, Studies in Conservation 2 (1997): 107-1 14. 12 Stoner and Rushfield, “Grounds. 1400-1900”, 261; Pissarro went as far as writing notes on canvas backs that read: “V euillez ne pas vernir ce tableau” [Please do not varnish this picture]. Anthea Callen, “The Unvarnished T ruth: Mattness, ‘Primitivism’ and Modernity in French Painting, c.1870-1907”, The Burlington Magazine 1 100 (1994), 738. 13 Stoner and Rushfield, “Grounds. 1400-1900”, 183. 14 Anfam and Callen, T echniques of the Gr eat Masters of Art , 160. 15 Callen, “The Unvarnished T ruth”, 738. HIS AND HER MA TERIALS 329 texture, were equated with both ‘primitivism’ and moder- nity 16 . It signalled influences from early art, including from inside the W estern tradition, harking back to the tempera techniques on unprimed canvas of the Middle Ages. While changes in the painters’ materials after 1870 have been the subject of conservation and restoration stud- ies 17 , their aesthetic implications are often overlooked. The following is a close reading of Camille Pissarro’ s painting Julie Pissarr o Sewing beside a W indow (1876- 1878), which foregrounds its canvas support across the entire surface, even leaving some areas blank at the bot- tom 18 . The fabric weave permeates the color throughout, enmeshing the image with the ground, a characteristic of Impressionism that anticipates not only Neo- and Post- Impressionism, but also later developments of Cubism, and beyond. This intimate portrait of his wife Julie is a milestone in Pissarro’ s brushwork that played a central role in his exchanges with Cézanne during the 1870s and laid the groundwork for modern art. This attention was driven both by formal considerations and by the exploration of the aesthetic possibilities arising from the interaction be- tween the ground or support and the creation of meaning 19 . 16 Callen, “The Unvarnished T ruth”, 738-746. 17 Andrea Kirsh and Rustin Levenson, Seeing Thr ough Paintings: Physical Examination in Art Historical Studies (New Haven and London: Y ale University Press, 2000); Stoner and Rushfield “Grounds. 1400-1900”; Stephen Hackney , On Canvas: Pr eserving the Structur e of Paintings (Los Angeles: The Getty Conservation Institute, 2020). 18 Conservators found intentional abrasion of the priming in works by Camille and Lucien Pissarro. The primer has been abraded to expose the weave throughout areas of sky and a river . L ydia Gutierrez and A viva Burnstock, “T echnical Examination of W orks by Camille and Lucien Pissarro from the Courtauld Gallery”, ArtMatters 5 (2013), 15-34: 16-17. 19 John House sees Pissarro’ s perpetual changes of style as the reflection of an interest in the expression of sensation and THE MA TERIALITY OF MODERNISMS 336 Pissarro sourced his canvas from the Parisian colorman Contet. The backs of Camille Pissarro’ s canvases often feature the Contet stamp (Figure 3). Even when he was exiled, during the Franco-Prussian war in 1871, Pissarro continued to import his choice of canvas from Contet to London 30 . The distinctive diagonal weave and canvas tex- ture are visible through the single layer of yellowish-grey priming on Julie Sewing 31 . Contet canvas offered signifi - cant resistance to Pissarro’ s brush, both in his landscapes and portraits. In Julie Sewing , too, the dragged colors have attached to the textured surface in an irregular manner . T ogether with the bare ground, the scattered distribution of paint suggests texture and creates effects of movement in the fabric that Julie is manipulating. It also enriches the textures of her skin and her flesh 32 , where the ground shows through: in her face, particularly around the eye, the nose, the ear , and the lips. The paint layer is the fullest (almost waxy in some areas) in the fleshiest and round - est parts of the forms and recedes in the spaces between pictorial shapes, towards the contours 33 , like those of the features of the face. This is especially true around the eye socket, following the eyebrow , at the jawline, just before the opening of the ear , and again behind the ear , and be- hind the neck (Figure 4, 5). Where the form recedes, the canvas appears; the rich flesh is constructed above that textured plane, the canvas often appearing near and on the contours. The canvas (re)appears here and there, between the fleshed-out parts of the right hand, as well as between the stripes of her dress – the diagonal canvas following the 30 Discussions with Jevon Thistlewood at the Ashmolean Museum, 2022. See also Anthea Callen, The Impr essionists in London (London: Hayward Gallery , 1973) exhibition catalogue. 31 Callen, T echniques of the Impr essionists , 88. 32 Callen, T echniques of the Impr essionists , 88. 33 Callen remarked this. Callen, T echniques of the Impr essionists , 88-91. HIS AND HER MA TERIALS 337 same direction as the fabric stripes (Figure 6). It likewise follows the main diagonal line of the composition that runs from Julie’ s downward look to the fabric between her hands, from the upper right to the lower left. Interestingly , Cézanne’ s portrait with a similar blank ground at the bot- tom (Figure 7, 8), has the diagonal pattern inverted. The lines run through Cézanne from the upper left to the lower right, in line with his left arm; the canvas is stretched in the opposite way . This matches the inverted sitter ’ s po- sition and the main diagonal of the composition in each painting. This observation extends to other paintings of the same period, including portraits like Jeanne Holding a Fan (1874) and landscapes like Hoarfr ost (1873). In Hoarfr ost , a painting showcased at the first Impressionist exhibition in Paris in 1874 and criticized for its perceived lack of finish and flatness, the twill not only aligns with the composition’ s general direction, but also enriches the earthy texture of the ploughed ground peeking through the painted snow 34 . T will sometimes mimics grains and tex- tures, and reinforced Camille’ s fractured brushstrokes. Figure 4 | The topography of Julie’ s face (eye, nose, lips). Detail of Julie Pissarr o Sewing beside a W indow . Photograph by the author . 34 Callen, T echniques of the Impr essionists , 91. THE MA TERIALITY OF MODERNISMS 338 Figure 5 | The topography of Julie’ s face (jaw , ear). Detail of Julie Pissarr o Sewing beside a W indow . Photograph by the author . Figure 6 | Detail of Julie’ s dress in Julie Pissarr o Sewing beside a W indow . Photograph by the author . HIS AND HER MA TERIALS 339 Figure 7 | Camille Pissarro, Cézanne’ s Portrait , 1874, National Gallery , London, UK. Photograph by the author . Figure 8 | Detail of Cézanne’ s Portrait. Photograph by the author . THE MA TERIALITY OF MODERNISMS 340 Figure 9 | Detail of Georges Seurat, Sunday at the Island of La Grande-Jatte , Art Institute, Chicago, US. Credit line: Steven Zucker , Smarthistory co-founder Figure 10 | Detail of Georges Seurat’ s Sunday at the Island of La Grande-Jatte . Photograph by the author . HIS AND HER MA TERIALS 341 The grainy and ubiquitous canvas texture already anticipates the influences and development of Neo- Impressionist painting, particularly the dotted, division- ist technique employed by Geor ges Seurat (1859-1891, French) to construct his pictures. However , at the time Pissarro made Julie Sewing , it would be another six years for Seurat to make his first Neo-Impressionist painting. Similar to how Seurat let the ridges of his paper fraction his Conté crayon strokes in his drawings, in several of his most renowned works, Seurat allowed the canvas – pre- pared à grain 35 – to significantly impact both the perceived and actual paint distribution. This effect is especially pro - nounced in Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte (begun in 1886), but detectable much earlier in The For est at Pontaubert (1881). In these pictures, Seurat let the linen dots subdivide his touche , causing one stroke of color to appear as multiple tiny applications of paint (Figure 9). This effect can be so pronounced in some areas that it becomes challenging to distinguish the paint from the canvas itself, and vice-versa (Figure 10) 36 . Pissarro and Seurat were acquainted, and Pissarro’ s profound influence on the young Seurat appears to have extended to his choice of painting supports. It is worth not- ing that Seurat’ s own Neo-Impressionist paintings in the 1880s would reciprocally influence Pissarro’ s technique. Pissarro played a pivotal role in the development of pointil- lism and divisionism which, in turn, significantly impacted 35 The canvas of Un Dimanche is a “coarse, heavyweight linen” that is lightly primed with white lead. Anthea Callen, The W ork of Art: Plein Air Painting and Artistic Identity in Nineteenth-Century France (London: Reaktion, 2015), 187. 36 Hannah De Corte, “The Dot in the Linen: Optical Mixing Between Canvas and Paint in the Modern Fabric of Geor ges Seurat’ s Un dimanche à l’île de la Grande Jatte-1884 ”, in Modernism Remodelled (Cambridge), conference proceed- ings (London: London Arts-Based Research Centre, 2024). THE MA TERIALITY OF MODERNISMS 342 the development of modernist art movements in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Pissarro’ s work of the 1870s foreshadows the strong awareness of the sup- port and a division of the painter ’ s touche in the works of the Impressionists and so-called Post-Impressionists: not only of Seurat, but also of Monet, Cassatt, Morisot, V an Gogh, Gauguin and Cézanne, a close friend of Pissarro for several decades. Julie Sewing exemplifies these aspects, with its scattered distribution of paint on a single-primed, absorbent canvas, significantly affecting the viewer ’ s perception. Camille’ s influence extended beyond France through his eldest son. After Camille had lived in exile in London in the early 1870s, Lucien Pissarro established himself as an artist in London from 1890. Lucien was a crucial connection between his father ’ s innovations and English painters. The use of canvas texture prevalent in Camille Pissarro’ s paintings found resonance in England, particu- larly in the choice of supports by painters of the Camden group (active 191 1-1913) which included artists like W alter Sickert. Painters of the group utilized the weave density and texture changes of their canvases 37 . Sickert, for instance, employed rough canvas texture (especially after 1905) to create the dark atmosphere of his London night scenes and to suggest intimacy in interior scenes. In paintings with few layers of paint, the fragmentation of the painter ’ s touch (accomplished through specific ap - plications of paint in smaller , scattered strokes, against cer - tain types of canvases and preparations) allows the ground to show through. It is often accompanied by a fractioning of the pictorial form. The fragmentation allows the ground to emer ge within and even show through certain forms, whether it is single-primed or entirely unprimed. It estab- lishes a figure to ground relationship between the paint and 37 Stoner and Rushfield, “Grounds. 1400-1900”, 143. HIS AND HER MA TERIALS 343 the canvas that does not exist when the canvas is com- pletely covered and isolated from the paint. This dynamic topography generates a perception of ‘emer gent images’: images that seem enmeshed with their canvas ground, with colors and forms appearing to billow up from underneath, permeating the canvas support, as if in a process of emer - gence or dissolution. It’ s akin to witnessing them in the midst of their development, similar to photographic pa- per halted in its development in the darkroom. The fab- ric weave remains visible across most of the surface and bodies forth the image or , alternatively , seems to absorb it back into the ground, dissolving color and form. While the images initially arrive in this fragmented or billowed-up state, our eyes, especially from a distance, have the ca- pacity to reconstruct them. Furthermore, the immediacy of raw materials means that once something is painted, it is set; the bare (or lightly primed) ground makes every touch count. Possibilities for pentimenti are restricted when building a picture from very few layers on unprimed can- vas. This quality of raw materials was utilized by the plein air Impressionist painters like Pissarro, ‘immediacy’ being a key term associated with his and their practice. The features that are now regarded as distinctly mod- ernist – the immediacy and emergence of images, along with other unconventional elements like the lack of var - nish – were, in their contemporary context, experienced as signs of an unfinished painting. The unfinished aspect of Impressionist paintings was off-putting for most conserva - tive critics and widely debated at the time 38 . Nevertheless, these aspects of immediacy and emer gence are integral to the Impressionists’ proposed analysis of vision 39 and their 38 Charles Baudelaire, for instance, wrote extensive- ly about the problem of finish. Rachel DeLue, “Pissarro, Landscape, V ision, and T radition”, The Art Bulletin 80 (1998): 718-736, 727. 39 DeLue, “Pissarro, Landscape, V ision, and T radition”. THE MA TERIALITY OF MODERNISMS 344 idea of the artistic process as closely identified with the artistic outcome 40 . Figure 1 1 | Julie’ s left sleeve in Julie Pissarr o Sewing beside a W indow . Photograph by the author . 40 Lionello V enturi, “The Aesthetic Idea of Impressionism”, The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 1 (1941): 34-45. HIS AND HER MA TERIALS 345 Figure 12 | The view in the window of Julie Pissarr o Sewing beside a W indow . Photograph by the author . THE MA TERIALITY OF MODERNISMS 352 in action are luminous representations of modern labour 47 . Pissarro equated peasant [ ouvrier ] work 48 with his own la- bour as a painter 49 . In Julie sewing , Camille’ s body at work parallels Julie’ s, effectively equating her work(ing) with his own. Beyond this representation, their relationship de- fied conventions; his parents never approved of the union with Julie who was the family’ s maid, even after the pair had had eight children. While Camille was raised in an affluent Jewish family , Julie was of much lower social sta - tus and Catholic. Their complicity in this double portrait appears to transcend not only artistic but societal norms. Notably , the majority of figures in Pissarro’ s por - traits are working women 50 . Linda Nochlin has described Pissarro’ s revolutionary portrayals of these women, draw- ing comparisons with Cézanne’ s representations of wom- en, which were revolutionary in their own right but for entirely different reasons 51 . Pissarro’ s depictions feature women who exude strength and radiance, often captured in assertive poses, engaged in dialogue, deeply absorbed in their tasks or thoughts (Figure 17, 18, 19). 47 Northern France was one of the first regions to mod - ernize its agriculture; with changes in crops and increased yields occurring more rapidly than in other areas. See Allison Jane MacDuffee, Camille Pissarr o: Modernism, Anar chism, and the Repr esentation of ‘The People’, 1888-1903 (The University of Michigan, 2004, doctoral thesis), 72. 48 Lloyd, Pissarr o , 61-62. 49 In Cézanne’ s portrait of 1874 (Figures 7, 8), Cézanne is depicted like a working man, as if he has just come in from the fields and has not had time to remove his jacket and worker ’ s hat. 50 Ralph Schikes and Paula Harper , Pissarr o his Life and W ork (New Y ork: Horizon Press, 1980). 51 Nochlin, “Pissarro, Cézanne, and the Eternal Feminine”, 47-59. HIS AND HER MA TERIALS 353 Figure 17 | Camille Pissarro, Y oung Peasant Girls Resting in the Fields near Pontoise , 1882, oil on canvas, National Gallery of Art, W ashington, US. Credit Line: Collection of Mr . and Mrs. Paul Mellon Figur e 18 | Camille Pissarro, Y oung Peasant Having Her Coffee , 1881, oil on canvas, Art Institute, Chicago, US. Credit Line: Potter Palmer Collection. THE MA TERIALITY OF MODERNISMS 354 Figure 19 | Camille Pissarro, Peasant Girl with a Straw Hat , 1881, oil on canvas, National Gallery of Art, W ashington, US. Credit Line: Ailsa Mellon Bruce Collection. Nochlin suggests that Pissarro occasionally infused el- ements of his own life and relationships into these figures, as he presented a modern portrayal of workers and inter - actions between them (encompassing artists as workers), executed with an equally modern technique 52 . Rachael DeLue observes that Pissarro’ s paintings appear to have been made by a labouring body , in an opticalized bodily 52 Nochlin, “Pissarro, Cézanne, and the Eternal Feminine”, 53. HIS AND HER MA TERIALS 355 relation to the world 53 . This aspect may help explain that he does not garnish the same attention from the broad pub- lic as the painters who consider Camille to be their men- tor . Compared to some of his closest contemporaries like Monet or Cézanne, Camille is “unsystematic”, “unsystem- atizable” 54 , and austere 55 , un-aesthetic even. Therefore, Pissarro can be a difficult painter to apprehend, his work challenging to grasp. As if anticipating that claim and challenging the common perception of Impressionist art as instantly apprehensible, Pissarro had insisted that his paintings require a slow eye to be appreciated; they unfold over time, something Émile Zola had noted about him 56 . ‘Immediacy’ in Pissarro’ s work has more to do with his process and with the process of vision, than with our look- ing at the picture. While Pissarro primarily focused on landscapes in the 1870s, a few intimate portraits, including Julie’ s, marked the return of portraiture in his work and foreshadowed a se- ries of peasant portraits in the following decade 57 . Notably , Julie Sewing bears resemblance to Pissarro’ s portraits in the early 1880s, such as Y oung Peasant Having Her Coffee 53 DeLue, “Pissarro, Landscape, V ision, and T radition”, 726-728. 54 Nochlin, “Pissarro, Cézanne, and the Eternal Feminine”, 59; Joachim Pissarro, Pioneering Modern Painting: Cézanne and Pissarr o, 1865-1885, 1865-95 (New Y ork: MoMA, 2005), exhibition catalogue. 55 About Pissarro’ s austerity , not repeating himself, and as the ‘anti-Monet’, see Clark, Pissarr o and the Perfect W ork of Art , from 32:00. 56 Émile Zola, “Une Exposition: Les Peintres Impressionnistes”, in Émile Zola: Le bon combat; De Courbet aux impr essionnistes , ed. Jean-Paul Bouillon (Paris: Hermann, 1974 [1877]), 128. 57 McQuillan, Impr essionist Portraits , 144; Seligman, The History and T echniques of the Gr eat Masters: Pissarr o , 38-39. THE MA TERIALITY OF MODERNISMS 356 (1881) (Figure 18) and Peasant Girl with a Straw Hat (1881) (Figure 19), both of which were exhibited at one of the last Impressionist exhibitions 58 . Though Julie’ s fea- tures have been rendered with greater precision and the ground is less bright (Figure 21), the angle of the intimate snapshot, the brushstrokes, the contours left blank, and the dresses of several of the women are treated almost identi- cally to Julie’ s dress (Figure 20). It appears that Pissarro conducted experiments in subject matter and technique in informal portraits of family and friends, which remained within personal collections. Some of these experiments evolved into a recurring theme in his body of work. Both his technique and subject matter developed from Julie Sewing to the subsequent modern(ist) series of introspec- tive and dynamic women at work: in the fields, at markets and in domestic settings. Figure 20 | Dress detail of Peasant Girl with a Straw Hat . Screenshot, NGA website. 58 Catalogue de la 7ème exposition des artistes indépen- dants (Paris: Morris Père et Fils, 1882), exhibition catalogue. HIS AND HER MA TERIALS 357 Figure 21 | Eye of Peasant Girl with a Straw Hat. Screenshot, NGA website. Figure 22 | Profile of Y oung Peasant Having Her Coffee. Screenshot, Art Institute website. THE MA TERIALITY OF MODERNISMS 358 Figure 23 | Cami lle Pissarro, Edge of the W oods Near L ’Hermitage, Pontoise , 1879, oil on fabric, 125 x 163 cm, Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, US. Credit line: Gift of the Hanna Fund. Figure 24 a | Detail of Edge of the W oods Near L ’Hermitage, Pontoise . Screenshots, Cleveland Museum of Art website HIS AND HER MA TERIALS 359 Figure 24 b | Detail of Edge of the W oods Near L ’Hermitage, Pontoise . Screenshots, Cleveland Museum of Art website Figure 25 | Head cover and grass, in Y oung Peasant Girls Resting in the Fields near Pontoise Screenshot, NGA website. THE MA TERIALITY OF MODERNISMS 360 His brushwork evolved at the end of the 1870s. In his peasant women portraits of 1881 (Figure 18, 22), and also in landscapes like The Backwoods near L ’Hermitage, Pontoise (1879) (Figure 23, 24), a painting included in the fourth Impressionist exhibition of 1879, Pissarro begun emulating in brushstr okes what the canvas had previously achieved in Julie Sewing , all without the aid of the canvas itself (Figure 22, 23). Camille expressed his dissatisfaction with this evolution, in a letter 59 . He mentions that he feels stuck and dislikes the work he is making at the very end of the 1870s and early 1880s. His style became closely wrought, producing a web of textured brushstrokes in sys- tematic diagonal patterns, in an effect that Pissarro himself likened to “knitting” or “ tricotage” 60 . This choice of words underscores the idea that his technique (un)willingly rep- licated the approximate regularity of the canvas weave in paint, which simply surfaced from beneath in Julie Sewing . Canvas texture is still present as a soft imprint beneath the knitting (Figure 25), certain areas recall the brushwork to canvas encounters of Julie’ s portrait (Figure 26) and it appears that Pissarro especially continued to rely on the canvas grain for the weave fabric of peasant (head) dress (Figure 21). But the subtle woven quality turned into more methodical and directional brushstrokes that also be- came broader and more even, placed overall more in the same direction. His form was more blurred than emer gent. Some of his drawings and prints of the late 1870s feature a similar technique in their use of hatching and cross-hatching. The fractured brushstroke in the mid to late 1870s in close dialogue with the canvas, became a weft of criss-crossed, intricate “knitting” of textures, leaving little to no room for the canvas support to come through 61 . 59 Lloyd, Pissarr o , 81. 60 Lloyd, Pissarr o , 81, 87. 61 Joachim Pissarro, Individualism and Inter-Subjectivity in Modernism. T wo Case Studies of Artistic Inter changes: HIS AND HER MA TERIALS 361 T ake the The Gar dener - Old Peasant with Cabbage (1883-1895): his profile (Figure 26, 27) is eerily similar to Julie’ s (look at the nose, the jawline, and the ear), but the ground is hardly present. It does for a much waxier surface, dominated by close-knit brushstrokes. Pissarro felt he had lost a clarity on the surface of the canvas by the very end of the 1870s 62 . However , it prompted Cézanne to formu- late his own method of breaking down color with parallel brushwork, as in La V allée de l’Oise (1880) (Figure 28). Figure 26 | Camille Pissarro, The Gar dener - Old Peasant with Cabbage , 1883-1895, oil on canvas, National Gallery of Art, W ashington, US. Credit Line: Collection of Mr . and Mrs. Paul Mellon Camille Pissarr o (1830-1903) and Paul Cézanne (1839-1906); Robert Rauschenber g (1925- ) and Jasper Johns (1930- ) (The University of T exas, 2001, doctoral thesis), 486. 62 Lloyd, Pissarr o , 87. THE MA TERIALITY OF MODERNISMS 368 _______, Pioneering Modern Painting: Cézanne and Pissarr o, 1865-1885 (New Y ork: MoMA, 2005). exhibition catalogue. Joachim Pissarro and Claire Durand-Ruel Snollaerts, Pissarr o – Catalogue Critique des Peintur es – Critical Catalogue of Paintings. (Milan and Paris: Skira, 2005). Patricia Seligman, The History and T echniques of the Gr eat Masters: Pissarr o (Edison Chartwell Books, 1989). Ralph Schikes and Paula Harper , Pissarr o his Life and W ork (New Y ork: Horizon Press,1980). Maartje Stols-W itlox, “The Preparatory System”, in Historical Recipes for Pr eparatory Layers for Oil Paintings in Manuals, Manuscripts and Handbooks in North W est Eur ope, 1550-1900: Analysis and Reconstructions (University of Amsterdam, 2014, doctoral thesis). Joyce Hill Stoner , T extur ed Surfaces: T echnique, Factur e, and Friendship in the W ork of James McNeill Whistler (University of Delaware, 1995, doctoral thesis). ________, “Whistler ’ s V iews on the Restoration and Display of His Paintings”, Studies in Conservation 2 (1997): 107-1 14. Joyce Hill Stoner and Rebecca Rushfield, “Grounds. 1400- 1900”, in Conservation of Easel Paintings (London: Routledge, 2012). Jevon Thistlewood, Paintings: Condition Report , 6 November 2007, Ashmolean Archives. Belinda Thomson and Michael Howard, Impr essionism (London: Bison Books, 1988). Anne Thorold, Kristen Erickson, Camille Pissarr o and His Family: The Pissarr o Collection in the Ashmolean Museum (Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 1993), exhibition catalogue. Joyce T ownsend, T iarna Doherty , Gunnar Heydenreich and Jacqueline Ridge, Pr eparation for Painting: The Artist’ s Choice and its Consequences , eds. Joyce T ownsend et al. (London: Archetype, 2008). Linda Whiteley , Colin Harrison, Camille Pissarr o : Father of Impr essionism (Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 2022), exhibi- tion catalogue. Lionello V enturi, “The Aesthetic Idea of Impressionism”, The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 1 (1941): 34-45. Émile Zola, “Une exposition: Les peintres impressionnistes”, in Émile Zola: Le bon combat; De Courbet aux impressionni- stes, ed. Jean-Paul Bouillon (Paris: Hermann, 1974 [1877]). Si lvia M arin Ba rutci eff * ENCOUNTERS WITH MODERNISM. ROMANIAN FEMALE AR TISTS TRA VELLING TO MUNICH IN SEARCH OF PROFESSIONAL EDUCA TION ( 1 8 9 0 - 1 9 1 4 ) T o Munich, to Munich: methodological considerations Between 1880 and 1914, an impressive number of young Romanians headed for Munich in order to com- plete their education and improve their artistic skills. Having spent a while there, some of them left the capital of Bavaria for Paris, while others returned directly to their country of origin, bringing back with them a cultural ex- perience that gave impetus to Romanian modernity . The academic literature on this topic has focused mainly on the activity of artists who arrived in the capital of Bavaria 1 or on the emancipation of female artists, due to the education they had generally acquired abroad 2 . This paper addresses * All translations by the author except when stated otherwise. 1  Ioana Vlasiu, “Călătoriile formației. Pictori din România la München în jur de 1900”, in Artiștii r omâni în străinătate (1830–1940) . Călătoria între formație academică și studiu liber  (București: Institutul Cultural Român, 2017): 238- 342; Ioana Vlasiu, “The Cult of Art(ists): How Experiences in Munich were transfered to Romania 1900-1915”, in T ransformation der Moderne um 1900. Künstler aus Ungarn, Rümanien and Bulgarien in München , ed. Christian Fuhrmeister and Lia Lindner (Passau: Dietmar Klinger V erlag, 2022): 21 1-228. 2  Olivia Nițiș, “Gen și emancipare: călătoriile artiste - lor în primele decenii ale secolului XX”, in Artiștii r omâni în THE MA TERIALITY OF MODERNISMS 370 the experience of Romanian female painters and sculptors in Munich, the reasons that motivated their option for this city , and the artists’ perception of the Bavarian cultural environment. The present investigation explores the biog- raphies of five women who resided in Munich between 1897 and 191 1. Three of them were born in Romania – Cecilia Cuțescu (1879-1969), Maria Ciurdea Steurer (1878-1967),Nina Arbore(1889-1942), onein Bessarabia – Milița Petrașcu (1888-1976), and one in T ransylvania 3 – Elena Popea (1879-1941). My research has tapped into primary sources ranging from memoir writings (personal diaries, memoirs written by other Romanian intellectuals of the times), to interviews with the respective female art- ists, and articles appearing in various publications in the period1896-1927. Moreover ,I studiedanumber ofdocu - ments on the students of the Ladies’ Academy in Munich [Damen-Akademie] edited by Y vette Deseyve 4 , as well as the matriculation and academic records of the students en- rolled at the Academy of Fine Arts in the same city . 5 Passionate women and men: students in sear ch of pr ofessors In September 1897, an 18-year-old Romanian, Cecilia Cuțescu, noted in her personal diary impressions on her străinătate (1830-1940) . Călătoria între formație academică și studiu liber  (București: Institutul Cultural Român, 2017): 343 - 387. 3 Between1867 and1918,T ransylvaniawas aprovince of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. 4 Y vette Deseyve, Der Künstlerinnen-V er ein München e. V . und seine Damen-Akademie. Eine Studie zur Ausbildungssituation von Künstlerinnen im späten 19. und frühen 20. Jahr hundert (München:HubertUtzV erlag,2005). 5 Digitale Edition der Matrikelbücher . 1809 - 1935 , avail- ableathttps://matrikel.adbk.de/,lastvisit31.10.2023,1 1.30. ENCOUNTERS WITH MODERNISM 371 arrival to the “city of so many beautiful fountains” where she intended to study painting 6 . A few years later , in January 1903, Elena Popea reached the capitalof Bavaria in pursuit of artistic instruction 7 . Also in 1903, after two years’ training at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Bucharest, Maria Ciurdea travelled to Munich, where she spent the following two years 8 . In search of similar instruction, Nina Arbore cameto this cityin the springof 1906 9 , while Milița Petrașcu joined the artists’  community on the Isar in 1910 10 . The five young ladies arrived in the capital of Bavaria at a time when Munich fully enjoyed its reputation as a major Europeanart hub. Despitedifferent family backgrounds 11 , 6  Cecilia Cuțescu Storck, Fr esca unei vieți  (București: Bucovina, I. E. T orouțiu, 1943), 41. See also Angela V rancea, Cecilia Cuțescu Stor ck  (București: Editura de Stat Pentru Literaturăși Artă,1957),6. 7  See the Appendix listing the students of Damen- Akademie, published in Deseyve, Der Künstlerinnen-V er ein München ,178. 8 Nițiș,“Genșiemancipare”,355. 9  In her 1976 study , based on Nina Arbore’ s interview with Petru Comarnescu, where the artist mentioned her three years of study in Munich, Elena Mateescu ar gued that this train- ing occurred between 1907 and 1910. See Elena Mateescu, “Picturași graficaNinei Arbore încontextul arteiromânești din perioada interbelică”, in Studii și cer cetări de istoria artei , se- ries Artă Plastică 23 (1976): 103-133, 103. The matriculation register of Damen-Akademie mentioned by Y vette Deseyve re- cords Nina Arbore as a student between April 1906-1909. See Deseyve, Der Künstlerinnen-V er ein München , 142. 10 The sculptor was born Melania Nicolaevici. See Ioana Vlasiu, Milița Petrașcu , series Maeștri basarabeni din secolul XX (Chișinău: Arc,2004),9. 11   Cecilia Cuțescu was born to a middle-class family in Oltenia. Nina Arbore was the descendant of an old aristocrat- ic family of Moldavia (documented since the 15th century). THE MA TERIALITY OF MODERNISMS 372 they shared a common aspiration: to gain the best pos - sible education and training, paving their way to artistic careers. This experience followed immediately after the high school years for some of them (Cecilia Cuțescu 12 ); others had previous university studies in other fields (Elena Popea had studied Philology at Leipzig 13 , Milița Petrașcu – Philosophy at Sankt Petersburg and Medicine at Moscow 14 ). Some of them had already begun their art instruction (Maria Ciurdea 15 , MilițaPetrașcu 16 ) during this era of social progress, when women were admitted to uni- versity 17 . Before travelling to Munich, they had their skills Maria Ciurdea (future Ciurdea-Steurer) was the daughter of a Moldavian merchant. Elena Popea was the daughter of a re- nowned professor and publicist from T ransylvania. 12   Cecilia Cuțescu (future Cuțescu Storck) attended the Central School for Girls (Școala Centralăde Fete) in Bucharest until 1896. Having completed 6 years in this institution, the 17-year -old realized she did not wish to become a teacher and dropped out the seventh year of highschool, in order to take art studies.SeeheraccountinCuțescuStorck, Fr esca ,30. 13  Radu Popica, “Elena Popea (1879-1941) – peregrină prin pictura românească”, in Elena Popea . Catalog  (Brașov: Muzeul  de Artă Brașov , 2010): 8-19, 8; Monica Enache, “Elena Popea”, in  Egal. Artă și feminism în România modernă  (București: V ellant,  2015):44-46;Nițiș,“Genșiemancipare”,355. 14   V ictor Crăciun, Milița Petrașcu - statuia nefăcută. Convorbiri și eseuri (Cluj-Napoca:Dacia,1988),12-13. 15 Before going to Munich, Maria Ciurdea attended the Academy of Fine Arts in Bucharest between 1901 and 1903. See Nițiș,“Genșiemancipare”,355. 16 She had studied drawing and painting at Moscow . See Vlasiu, Milița Petrașcu , 9; Ioana Vlasiu, “Petrașcu (Ojoga) Milița”,in Dicționarul sculptorilor din România. Secolele XIX- XX , ed. Ioana Vlasiu (București: Editura Academiei Române, 2012), vol. II, H - L:216 - 219,216. 17 Art schools in Romania accepted women enrollment starting with the last two decades of the nineteenth century . See the documents from The National Romanian Archives of Iassy , ENCOUNTERS WITH MODERNISM 373 assessed by experienced artists and, based on their recom- mendations, the aspiring painters were able to pursue their passionforart. Forinstance,in1897,the worksofCecilia Cuțescuwere examinedby T adeusz Ajdukiewicz, aPolish realist painter . He had answered the invitation of Carol I, king of Romania, to come to Bucharest in order to make the official portraits of the royal family 18 . Having studied artin thecapital ofBavaria, Ajdukiewicz pleadedwiththe Cuțescu family to send the 17-year-old abroad to pursue art training 19 . Likewise, before her study trip in Germany , Nina Arbore was in contact with Nicolae V ermont, a Romanian painter who had lived and worked in Munich for several years 20 . However , arriving in the city on the Isar was not tanta- mount to acceptance into the Academy of Fine Arts, where until the end of the First W orld W ar female candidates Școalade ArteFrumoase(1860-1959) Fund,Records4/1886,f. 14 and 4/1889, f. 72 and also Adrian-Silvan Ionescu, Învățământul artistic r omânesc. 1830-1892 (București: Meridiane, 1999). On the right to higher education of the Romanian women, see Alin Ciupală, Femeia în societatea r omânească a secolului XIX: între public și privat (București:Meridiane,2003). 18  CuțescuStorck, Fr esca ,31. 19   Cuțescu Storck, Fr esca , 32. On the presence of T adeusz Ajdukiewiczat theRoyal Academy ofFine Artsin Bavaria,see https://matrikel.adbk.de//matrikel/mb_1841-1884/jahr_1873/ matrikel-02904. 20 Accepted into the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in the autumn of 1887 asa student ofprofessor Gabriel vonHackl (see https://matrikel.adbk.de/matrikel/mb_1884-1920/jahr_1887 / matrikel-00452 ), Isidor Nicolae V ermont (1866-1932) later workedunderLudwigvon Löfftz.SeeN.Petrașcu,“A doua ex - poziție a T inerimii Artistice”, Literatură și artă r omână , VII/1 - 2 (1903), 2530, article reprinted in Cr onica de artă. Despr e pictori și tablouri în paginile gazetelor r omânești din veacul al XIX-lea (1860-1900) , ed. Lidia T răușan-Matu, II (Cluj-Napoca: Mega, 2018), 42. THE MA TERIALITY OF MODERNISMS 374 were only exceptionally admitted as students 21 . Prior to the 1880s, women who came to Bavaria had only one possibil- ity:tolearnthe craftinanartist’ sworkshop. Thesituation is illustrated bythe efforts requiredto becomea painter ,as narrated inthe 1853 diary of Anna MaryHowitt. She was an English woman who was welcomed as an apprentice to the German painter W ilhelm von Kaulbach(1805-1874) 22 . However , withthe foundationof MünchnerKünstlerinnen V erein in 1882, the female artists residing in the capital of Bavaria in the late nineteenth century were offered more professional opportunities. The establishment of this as- sociation resulted, two years later , in the foundation of 21 Sabine W ieber , Jugendstil W omen and the Making of Modern Design (London, New Y ork, Oxford, New Delhi, Sidney: Bloomsbury V isual Arts, 2022), 107; Linda L. Clark, W omen and Achievement in Nineteenth-Century Eur ope , W omen and the Arts  (Cambridge, New Y ork, Melbourne: Cambridge University Press, 2008), 85. According to archive documents of the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, Maria Ellenrieder (1791 - 1863) was the first woman artist to attend courses of historical painting there, from 1813 to 1820. This was possible due to the intervention of the vicar general of Konstanz Ignaz Heinrich Freiherr von W essenber g to director Johann Peter von Langer . See https://matrikel.adbk.de/matrikel/mb_1809- 1841/jahr_1813/matrikel-00229 . Other women who stud- ied at the same arts institution were painter Louise Caroline Sophie Seidler (1786-1866), https://matrikel.adbk.de/matrikel/ mb_1809-1841/jahr_1817/matrikel-00421 , sculptor Elisabeth Ney (1833 – 1907), present in Munich between 1852 and 1854, https://matrikel.adbk.de/matrikel/mb_1841-1884/jahr_1852/ matrikel-01060,lastvisit31.10.2023,15.01 . 22 In her diary , the young woman lamented the situation of people like herself, who had difficulties in finding a professor , as they were not accepted by the Bavarian Royal Academy of Fine Arts or among the students of renowned artists. Anna Mary Howitt-W atts, An Art-Student in Munich , vol. I, second edi- tion (London: De la Rue & Co., 1880), 2.Atthe time,W ilhelm von Kaulbach had recently begun to teach at the Academy . See https://matrikel.adbk.de/lehrer/kaulbauch-wilhelm-von . ENCOUNTERS WITH MODERNISM 375 an art school for women, Damen-Akademie 23 , an insti- tution whose courses were attended by Cecilia Cuțescu (1897-1899), Elena Popea (1903-1905), and NinaArbore (1906-1909) 24 . Researching the activity of this institution, Y vette Deseyve ascertained the curriculum’ s structure and the subjects studied during the academic years, as well as the names of professors teaching these subjects 25 . At the beginning of her schooling, Elena Popea studied drawing with Angelo Jank 26 and landscape painting with Caroline Kempter 27 . Also, in the early part of her studies in Germany , Nina Arbore attended the courses run by the same Angelo Jank, just before he received the position of professor at the Bavarian Royal Academy 28 . As an art- ist in close contact to the Munich Secession group of the Jugend  magazine, Jank enjoyed fame beyond the borders of Germany , and was noted as a major proponent of the modern aesthetics in an article published by Burlington Magazine 29 . 23 Deseyve, Der Künstlerinnen-V er ein Munich ,35,68. 24 The names of the three young women are included in the list of Damen-Akademie students between 1884 and 1920, provided by Deseyve, Der Künstlerinnen-V er ein Munich , 142, 149,178. 25 Deseyve, Der Künstlerinnen-V er ein Munich , 201-208. 26 Andrei Bârseanu, “Elena Popea”, Luceafărul. Revistă ilustrată pentru literatură și artă  VIII/16 – 17 (1909): 585. Angelo Jank was an artist who provided many illustrations to the magazines Jugend and Simplicissimus , promoting the Munich Secession in late-nineteenth century Bavaria. His works appear in many issues of these two publications, which propagated modernism in Germany: Simplicissimus , no. 1, 1896, 8 and no. 2,1896,8; Jugend ,no.5,1897,10,no.9,1897,1 1. 27 Deseyve, Der Künstlerinnen-V er ein Munich , 204. 28 See https://matrikel.adbk.de/matrikel/mb_1884-1920/ jahr_1890/matrikel-00707,lastvisit31.10.2023,14.57. 29 Hans W olfgang Singer (H. W . S.), “Art in Germany”, The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs ,12/55(1907),55 - 56(56). THE MA TERIALITY OF MODERNISMS 376 T wo decades later , in an interview for a Romanian pub- lication, Nina Arbore acknowledged the contribution of this painter under whose direction many students hoped to be formed 30 . After Angelo Jank left the Academy , drawing courses were taught by Albert W eisgerber , who was also an advocate of art renewal 31 . Further information on the instruction provided by Damen-Akademie can be found in Cecilia Cuțescu’ s diary . The student described how courses were run, the profes- sors’  requirements, and the degree of difficulty of assign - ments. Among the painters teaching drawing, Friedrich Fehr stressed the artistic dimension, while Ludwig Schmid-Reutte, tenured professor of anatomy . He was highly praised by Burlington Magazine 32 , and was seen as very demanding with respect to technical skills 33 . In 1899, Friedrich Fehr also took on the costume design course. Of 30 Petre Comarnescu,“V oroava liniiloradânci. Devorbă cu d-ra Nina Arbore”, Rampa , 20 March 1927: 1-2 (1). Shortly before the First W orld W ar started, Angelo Jank had four times more students than other professors at the Royal Academy of Arts in Munich. Susanne Böller , “T wo American Painters in Munich. W alter Ufer and E. Martin Hennings”, in A Place in the Sun. The Southwest Paintings of W alter Ufer and E. Martin Hennings , ed. Thomas Brent Smith (Norman: University of OklahomaPress,2016):7-25,16. 31  Franz Stuck was one of the founding members of Münchener Neue Secession (1913). Information about Albert W eisgerber (1878–1915) in “Albert W eisgerber”, American Art News  13/34 (1915): 4; Albert-W eisgerber -Stiftung, https:// albertweisgerber .de/albert-weisgerber/biografie/ , last visit 31.10.2023,15.08. 32 Hans W olfgang Singer (H. W . S.), “Art in Germany , Austria and Switzerland”, The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs ,13(1908),367-370;375:369. 33  Cuțescu Storck, Fr esca , 60. The future artist expressed in her diary her preference for the classes of this professor . See CuțescuStorck, Fr esca ,86. ENCOUNTERS WITH MODERNISM 377 the 40 female students who had joined the drawing course, only 7 were selected for this class also. Among them was Cecilia Cuțescu,who washappy tofind herselfin the com - pany of the most talented colleagues in her generation 34 . The other two aspirants, Maria Ciurdea and Milița Petrașcu, followed different paths in their formative edu - cation. In 1903 the first one enrolled in AntonAžbe’ s pri - vateschool where W assily Kandinskyhad alsobeen astu - dent a few years earlier . She supplemented her income by giving drawing lessons and taking orders for portraits 35 . In 1910, Milița Petrașcu joined Kandinsky’ s circle of artists, where she met other proponents of expressionism, such as Alexei Jawlensky and Paul Klee. During her year spent in Munich, she participated in a group exhibition along- side them, receiving a positive critical reception 36 . Prior to her all-important encounters with Antoine Bourdelle and Constantin Brâncuși in Paris sculptor Milița Petrașcu had lessons in Bavaria with V ittorio Güttner (1869-1935) and Cipri Adolf Bermann (1862-1942) 37 . Although she was already a student of the Damen-Akademie, Nina Arbore attended the recently-established School of W ilhelm von Debschitz as well, where training was centred on modern decorative arts 38 . 34 CuțescuStorck, Fr esca ,62. 35 Manuscript autobiography of the artist at MNAR, Document collection, no. 223, f. 3. Apud V alentina Iancu, “Maria Ciurdea Steurer”, in Egal. Artă și feminism în România modernă , 28. 36 Crăciun, Milița Petrașcu , 13. 37 Crăciun, Milița Petrașcu , 171. 38  Ștefania Schwartz, “Nina Arbore”, Arta plastică  6 (1957), 45 (45); Gheor ghe V ida, Nina Arbor e , series Maeștri basarabeni din secolul XX  (Chișinău: Arc, 2004), 35. For Debschitz School see Robin Lenman, “A  Community in T ransition: Painters in Munich. 1886–1924”, Central Eur opean History , 15/1 (1982), 3-33, 25; Beate Ziegert, “The Debschitz THE MA TERIALITY OF MODERNISMS 384 (1906) 62 . The memoirs of the two evoke the intense cul- tural life in the capital of Bavaria, with its museums and art galleries, the beauty of the cityʼs architecture, as well as that of the Alpine scenery 63 . The studios and schools of the German painters of Munich were also attractions to the aspiring artists. Reminiscing about his studies in Bavaria, painter Marius Bunescu stated that, in order to be accepted by the Academy of Fine Arts, he had first joined a sum - mer school, then the private school of Professor Hermann Gröber 64 . The houses with studios of Franz von Lenbach and Franz von Stuck inspired Cecilia Cuțescu and her fu - ture husband, sculptor Frederic Storck, in designing their home in Bucharest (1912-1913), built according to the principles of Gesamtkunstwerk [the comprehensive art- work] 65 . The popularity of these workshops, attended also by women 66 , was so great that in 1889, Carl T eufel pub- lished a three-volume photo album of the Munich artists and the space where they created their works 67 . 62 According to his own memoir , Marius Bunescu re- ceived a scholarship from the prefecture of Romanați county . He left for Munich in 1906, and spent the following six years there. See Marius Bunescu, Însemnările unui pictor  (București: Meridiane,1965),45. 63  Tzigara-Samurcaș, Memorii , 105-106; Bunescu, Însemnările,50and55. 64  Bunescu, Însemnările, 51 and 54. Details of the en - deavours to find a suitable art educator in Munich are found inside the memoirs of Camil Ressu, Însemnări (București: Meridiane,1967),27-29. 65 The artist noted in her memoir that this had been her dream, in Munich and in Paris as well. Cuțescu Storck, Fr esca , 288. 66 Lenman,“A CommunityinT ransition”,23. 67 Carl T eufel, Ateliers Münchner  3vol. (Munich:1889). ENCOUNTERS WITH MODERNISM 385 Romanian women artists in Munich: conclusions The Romanian artists’ interest in Munich should be firstly considered in the general historical context, giv - en the reputation enjoyed by this urban centre, in Europe and beyond, in the late nineteenth century 68 . During the 1870s-80s,Polish,Hungarian,Russian, and Americanart - ists arrived there for professional development 69 because the city’ s atmosphere was able to foster and stimulate a life dedicated to art. In 1875, Ludwig II stated that the king - dom’ s policy had to include efforts aimed at maintaining the image of Munich as a “city of the arts” 70 , a project that encouraged and attracted both artists and tourists. Compared to Berlin, Munich had richer opportunities for entertainment, more freedom in social mores 71 , as well as education, including artistic education, as noted by Käthe Schmidt (Kollwitz), who left the imperial capital for the city on the Isar 72 . Compared to Paris, until around 1900, Munich had lower costs 73 , an important aspect for the art- ists in search of financial resources not only for tuition, accommodation, and food, but also having to pay for a studio, materials, and models. 68 For the Bavarian life of the Romanian students be- fore 1850 see Adrian-Silvan Ionescu, “V iața studenților români la München acum 160 de ani”, Revista muzeelor  3-4 (1999): 139-144. 69 Böller ,“T wo AmericanPaintersinMunich”,7. 70 W ieber , Jugendstil W omen , 8. 71 Lenman, “A Community in T ransition”, 5. 72  Rina Arya, “The Graphic Power of Käthe Kollwitz”, in W omen in the Arts in the Belle Epoque: Essays on Influential Artists, W riters and Performers , ed. Paul Fryer (Jefferson & London:McFarland,2012),212-213. 73  Böller , “T wo American Painters in Munich”, 7. Marius Bunescu remembers how the money he had earned during the summer in Constanța (Romania) in 1907 covered his expenses inMunichforayear .MariusBunescu,Însemnările,53. THE MA TERIALITY OF MODERNISMS 386 Other reasons for taking those journeys to Bavaria should be searched within the Romanian historical con- text. In this regard, at the dawn of the nineteenth century , the Romanians found themselves under the influence of two cultural models, French and German. Thus, Munich was, alongside V ienna, Leipzig, and Berlin, one of the destinations of choice for young people seeking a uni- versity education. Geographically , Munich was closer for the Romanians than Paris and could be reached by ferries sailing up the Danube 74 . T ies with the education centres of Central Europe were further strengthened after 1866, when the United Romanian Principalities 75 came under the rule of German-born prince Carol I, of the Hohenzollern- Sigmaringen family . Munich’ s prestige was also sus- tained by the relationship of this monarch with south- ern Germany 76 . The cultural life of this city inspired the Romanians who returned to their homeland to found in 1902 at Bucharest a society named Art Y outh [T inerimea Artistică] 77 , a name that recalls the Jugend  magazine 74 TheroutePassau–V iena–Budapesta–Belgrad–Corabia taken by ferry is described in the book of Marius Bunescu, Însemnările,52. 75 In 1881, the United Romanian Principalities became theKingdomofRomania. 76  The Hohenzollern residence of King Carol I was at Sigmaringen. On the importance of Munich, see the king’ s cor- respondence which records several orders placed in the Bavarian capital for the construction and decoration of one of his resi- dences (Peleș Castle in Sinaia). See Scrisorile Regelui Car ol I din arhiva de la Sigmaringen. 1878-1905 , ed. Sorin Cristescu (București:Paideia,2010). 77  Art Y outh Society (T inerimea Artistică) was founded in 1902. K. H. Zambaccian, Însemnările unui amator de artă (București: Editura de Stat pentru Literatură și Artă, 1957). Among its members were Ștefan Luchian, Nicolae V ermont, Ștefan Popescu, Ipolit Strâmbulescu, and Kimon Loghi, all of whom had studied at Munich. For more information about ENCOUNTERS WITH MODERNISM 387 [Y outh], the weekly publication issued in Munich to pro- mote modern art. On the other hand, the women artists of the 1900s en- joyed a new climate, offering more opportunities for edu - cation to women than any other epoch before. The fin de siècle gave them the right to receive public instruction in new domains. Not least, the studies attended by the male colleagues of their own country set an example for the female Romanian artists in pursuing a career in art. Over the last decades of the nineteenth century and the early ones of the following century , a great number of Romanian painters and sculp- tors crossed the Alps in search of this type of education, although Bucharest and Iași already hosted art schools. After 1895, women gained the right of attending special- ized courses, some of them took this opportunity , as was the case of Maria Ciurdea for two years. Increasingly chal- lenged by Paris 78 Munich continued for a period to entice the Romanians who dreamed of becoming artists. the role of this art society see Vlasiu, “The Cult of Art(ists)”, 213-221. 78 Numerous artists, after having spent a time in Munich, continued their education in France. Cecilia Cuțescu, Nina Arbore, Milița Petrașcu, and Elena Popea did the same, hoping that in Paris they would be encouraged to find and assert an art style of their own. By 1910, the capital of Bavaria had started toplaysecondfiddletothecapitalofFrance, whichbecamethe European destination most sought out for art training. See also Böller ,“T wo AmericanPaintersinMunich”,7. THE MA TERIALITY OF MODERNISMS 388 Bibliography Primary sour ces Ar chives AkademiederBildendenKünsteMünchen. Digitale Edition der Matrikelbücher . 1809-1935 , available at https://matrikel. adbk.de/ . Romanian National Archives, Iassy , Academia de Arte Frumoase(1859-1950),Records4/1886and4/1889. Memoir es Marius Bunescu, Însemnările unui pictor  (București: Meridiane,1965). Sorin Cristescu (ed.), Scrisorile Regelui Car ol I din ar hiva de la Sigmaringen. 1878-1905 ,(București:Paideia,2010). Cecilia Cuțescu Storck, Fr esca unei vieți  (București: BucovinaI.E. T orouțiu,1943). Anna Mary Howitt-W atts, An Art-Student in Munich , vol. I, secondedition(London:DeLaRue&Co.,1880). Sextil Pușcariu, Călar e pe două veacuri. Amintiri din tine- r ețe (1895-1906) (București:EdituraPentruLiteratură,1968). CamilRessu,Însemnări(București:Meridiane,1967). Al. Tzigara-Samurcaș, Memorii , I (1872 – 1910), ed. Ioan ȘerbandFlorica Șerb,prefaceDanGrigorescu (București:Grai șiSuflet – CulturaNațională,1991). K. H. Zambaccian, Însemnările unui amator de artă (București:EdituradeStatpentruLiteraturăși Artă,1957). Articles and interviews in newspapers Andrei Bârseanu, “Elena Popea”, Luceafărul. Revistă ilu- strată pentru literatură și artă  VIII/16 - 17(1909):585. Chițibuș,“Scrisori cătreiubită.VIII.Münchenul”, Adevărul 2 August(1896):2. V ictor Crăciun, Milița Petrașcu – statuia nefăcută. Convorbiri și eseuri (Cluj-Napoca:Dacia,1988). ENCOUNTERS WITH MODERNISM 389 IonelJianu,“V oroavaliniiloradânci.Devorbăcud-naNina Arbore despre femeile pictore”, Rampa  XII, no. 2976 (23 de - cembrie1927):1 - 2. Jugend ,no.5,1897. Jugend ,no.9,1897. 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Susanne Böller , “American Artists at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. 1850 - 1920”, in American Artists in Munich. Artistic Migration and Cultural Exchange Pr ocesses , ed. Christian Fuhrmeister , Hubertus Kokle and V eerle Thielemans (Berlin:DeutscherKunstverlag,2009):43 - 56. Susanne Böller , “T wo American Painters in Munich. W alter Ufer and E. Martin Hennings”, in A Place in the Sun. The Southwest Paintings of W alter Ufer and E. Martin Hennings , ed. Thomas Brent Smith (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2016):7-25. FrankBüttner ,“The Academyand Munich՚sFame asa City of Art”, in American Artists in Munich. Artistic Migration and THE MA TERIALITY OF MODERNISMS 390 Cultural Exchange Pr ocesses , ed. Christian Fuhrmeister , Kokle Hubertus, Thielemans V eerle (Berlin: Deutscher Kunstverlag, 2009):27 - 42. Marco Bontje, Musterd Sako and Peter Pelzer , Inventive City- Regions. Path Dependence and Cr eative Knowledge Strategies (Farnham&Burlington: Ashgate,201 1). Alin Ciupală, Femeia în societatea r omânească a secolului XIX: între public și privat (București:Meridiane,2003). Linda L. Clark., W omen and Achievement in Nineteenth- Century Eur ope, W omen and the Arts (Cambridge, New Y ork, Melbourne:CambridgeUniversityPress,2008). Eleonora Costescu, Artiștii Stor ck. Saga unei familii de ar- tiști de-a lungul unui veac și jumătate  (București: Arc 2000, 1996). Y vette Deseyve, Der Künstlerinnen-V er ein München e. V . und seine Damen-Akademie. Eine Studie zur Ausbildungssituation von Künstlerinnen im späten 19. und frühen 20. Jahr hundert (München:HubertUtz V erlag,2005). Hajo Düchting, W assily Kandinsky . A Revolution in Painting (1866-1944)  (Köln, London, Los Angeles, Madrid, Paris, T okyo: T aschen, 2000). Hartmut Ellrich, Die W ittelsbacher in Bayern und am Rhein (Petersber g:MichaelImhof,2014) Monica Enache, “Elena Popea”, in Egal. Artă și feminism în România modernă (București: V ellant,2015):44 - 46. W alter Frisch, German Modernism: Music and Arts (Berkley , Los Angeles,London:UniversityofCaliforniaPress,2005). Michaela Giebelhausen, “Museum Architecture: A  Brief History”, in A Companion to Museum Studies , ed. Sharon Macdonald(Chichester:BlackwellPublishing,201 1):223 - 244. Jeremy Howard, Art Nouveau. International and National Styles in Eur ope  (Manchester & New Y ork: Manchester UniversityPress,1996). V alentina Iancu, “Maria Ciurdea Steurer”, in Egal. Artă și fe - minism în România modernă (București: V ellant,2015):28 - 29. Adrian-Silvan Ionescu, “Călătoria ca artă și pentru artă”, in Artiștii r omâni în străinătate (1830-1940). Călătoria între for - mație academică și studiu liber  (București: Institutul Cultural Român,2017):7 - 90. ENCOUNTERS WITH MODERNISM 391 Adrian-Silvan Ionescu, Învățământul artistic r omânesc. 1830-1892 (București:Meridiane,1999). Adrian-Silvan Ionescu, “V iața studenților români la München acum160deani”, Revista muzeelor 3-4(1999):139-144. Andrew Lees and L ynn Hollen Lees, Cities and the Making of Modern Eur ope. 1750-1914 (Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press,2007). Robin Lenman, “A  Community in T ransition: Painters in Munich. 1886–1924”, Central Eur opean History , 15/1 (1982): 3 - 33. Robin Lenman, Artists and Society in Germany (1850-1914) (Manchester;New Y ork,ManchesterUniversityPress,1997). Elena Mateescu, “Pictura și grafica Ninei Arbore în contex - tul artei românești din perioada interbelică”, Studii și cer cetări de istoria artei ,series ArtăPlastică23(1976):103 - 133. Münchner Landschaftsmaler ei 1800-1850: 8. März–20. Mai, 1979 , Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, München, Katalog eine Ausstellung der Städtischen Galerie im Lenbachhaus in Zusammenarbeit mit den Bayerischen Staatsgemäldesammlungen und der Staatlichen Graphischen Sammlung,Hg.von ArminZweite(München:1979). Manuel Gasser (ed.), München um 1900  (Bern, Stuttgart: Hallwag V erlag,1977). OliviaNițiș,“Genși emancipare:călătoriileartistelorînpri - mele decenii ale secolului XX”, in Artiștii r omâni în străinătate (1830-1940) . Călătoria între formație academică și studiu liber (București:InstitutulCulturalRomân,2017):343 - 387. RaduPopica,“ElenaPopea(1879-1941)-peregrinăprinpi - ctura românească”, in Elena Popea. Catalog  (Brașov: Muzeul de ArtăBrașov ,2010):8 - 19. Hans W olfgang Singer (H. W . S.), “Art in Germany”, The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs ,12/55(1907):55-56. _______________, “Art in Germany , Austria and Switzerland”, The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs , 13 (1908):367-370;375. Ștefania Schwartz, “Nina Arbore”, Arta plastică  6 (1957): 45. Gheor ghe V ida, Nina Arbor e , series Maeștri basarabeni din secolul XX (Chișinău: Arc,2004). THE MA TERIALITY OF MODERNISMS 392 Ioana Vlasiu, “Călătoriile formației. Pictori din România la München în jur de 1900”, in Artiștii r omâni în străinătate (1830-1940) . Călătoria între formație academică și studiu liber (București:InstitutulCulturalRomân,2017):238 - 342. Ioana Vlasiu, “The Cult of Art(ists): How Experiences in Munich were transfered to Romania 1900 - 1915”, in T ransformation der Moderne um 1900. Künstler aus Ungarn, Rümanien and Bulgarien in München , ed. Christian Fuhrmeister and Lia Lindner (Passau: Dietmar Klinger V erlag, 2022): 2 11 - 228. Ioana Vlasiu, “Petrașcu (Ojoga) Milița”, in Dicționarul sculptorilor din România. Secolele XIX-XX , ed. Ioana Vlasiu (București: Editura Academiei Române, 2012), vol. II, H - L: 216 - 219. Ioana Vlasiu, Milița Petrașcu , series Maeștri basarabeni din secolul XX (Chișinău: Arc,2004). Angela V rancea, Cecilia Cuțescu Stor ck  (București: Editura deStatPentruLiteraturăși Artă,1957). Sabine W ieber , Jugendstil W omen and the Making of Modern Design  (London, New Y ork, Oxford, New Delhi, Sidney: Bloomsbury V isual Arts, 2022). Beate Ziegert, “The Debschitz School, Munich: 1902-1914”, Design Issues ,3/1(1986):28-42. J ess ica V eeve rs MA TERIALITY AND MA TTERING: ACR YLIC P AINT AND MONTREAL HARD - EDGE P AINTING Scholars have traditionally regarded high modernist Hard-Edge paintings – such as those by Guido Molinari (1933-2004), Claude T ousignant (born 1932), and Y ves Gaucher (1934-2000) – as finite, fixed, and fully materi - alized. Their paintings are lar ge-scale, uniformly layered (omitting figure-ground relationships), unmodulated, opaque, and feature crisply abutted color juxtapositions. The artists applied their paint with the skill, care, and precision of old master painters; thus, they give the ini - tial impression of fitting into the mold of the traditional ‘finite’ painting. What is often overlooked in the art histo - riography of this time is that in the 1960s when the Hard- Edge painters came into their own, they had at the same time adopted the use of acrylic paint. Acrylic paint was first advertised in 1954 1 and once taken up by these ab- stract painters in the later 1950s and early 1960s it for - ever changed the face of Montreal geometric abstraction – it became ‘Hard-Edge’ 2 . The technology of acrylic paint 1 R.G. Lodge, “A History of Synthetic Painting Media with Special Reference to Commercial Materials”, in AIC 16 th Annual Meeting, W ashington D.C.: American Institute of Conservation Pr eprints (New Orleans: Louisiana, 1988), 126. 2 Roald Nasgaard, “Le théoricien du molinarisme”, in Molinari , eds. Gilles Daigneault and Mar garida Mafra (Montreal: Guido Molinari Foundation, 2018): 92-1 10, 107; Jessica V eevers, The Intersection of Materiality and Mattering: Acrylic Paint and Montr eal Har d-Edge Painting , Doctoral Dissertation (Montreal: Concordia University , 2020). THE MA TERIALITY OF MODERNISMS 400 achieved through pouring, dripping, spraying and hurling the fast-drying synthetic paint at canvas surfaces quickly became concomitant with New Y ork avant-garde paint- ing in the 1940s and 1950s. Thus the ‘action painting’ art critic Harold Rosenber g 16 associated with Abstract Expressionism and the painting of Jackson Pollock, were indebted to the technical influence of Siqueiros and syn - thetic paint. The artist and paint maker Leonard Bocour began mak- ing artisanal oil paint in 1932 and the solvent-based acrylic paint, Magna, in 1949 17 . Just as Duco is indelibly associat- ed with Pollock’ s innovative drip paintings, Magna paint – the first solvent-based acrylic paint – will forever be con - nected with the poured V eil paintings of Morris Louis. The company Bocour Artist Colors marketed Magna as ‘the first new painting medium in 500 years’; in other words, since oil paint 18 . Different from the intended industrial ap - plication of Duco, Magna was the first synthetic paint me - dium to be developed and marketed specifically to artists. While artists consistently used Magna during the 1950s and 1960s including Morris Louis, Mark Rothko, Robert Motherwell, Barnett Newman, and Roy Lichtenstein, the medium never took off in the way that the water-based version of the polymer did 19 . It is the water-based acrylic medium that the Hard-Edge painters in Montreal would later take instruction from. The solvent-based system of Magna meant that the paint behaved much like an acryl- ic varnish, which meant that it could be readily redis- solved with subsequent applications. The V eil paintings, 16 Harold Rosenberg, “The American action painters”, ARTnews iss. 01 (1952): 22-23; 48-50. 17 Lodge, “A History of Synthetic Painting Media”, 125. 18 Thomas J.S. Learner , “Modern Paints: Uncovering the Choices”, in Modern Paints Uncover ed (Los Angeles: The Getty Conservation Institute, 2007): 3-16, 5. 19 Learner , “Modern Paints”, 5. MA TERIALITY AND MA TTERING 401 consisting in numerous applications of heavily diluted and brightly coloured Magna paints poured down lar ge-scale sheets of raw canvas were able to achieve their stained appearance and ultimate flatness because of the synthetic paint’ s unique redissolvable property . This type of surface could not be achieved with oil paint because it does not dry quickly enough nor is it redissolvable. The unique ma- teriality of Magna influenced Color Field painting meth - ods, the distinctive contribution of the W ashington Color School, and the ultimate planer color expanses that be - came favorably identified as Post-Painterly Abstraction by art critic, Clement Greenber g in 1964 20 . W ater-based acrylic emulsion paints played a similar role in the methodology and expression of Hard-Edge painting in Montreal. Acrylic paint is a versatile medium capable of modeling three-dimensional space, rendering objects tr ompe l’oeil , and being modeled into various textures – but oil paint could already do these things and often better . Instead of manipulating the acrylic medium to behave like oil paint, the Hard-Edge painters followed its unique expressive properties, and these influenced their making and their ideas. W ater-based acrylic paint, unlike solution-based Magna, does not lend itself to staining but it is uniquely proficient at achieving unprecedented smooth, even, and layered applications of paint – a quality and methodol - ogy that the Hard-Edge painters learned to execute with fastidious precision. W ith this new material vocabulary , Molinari, T ousignant, and Gaucher constructed new ideas that would not have been possible otherwise 21 . 20 Clement Greenberg, “Post Painterly Abstraction”, in Clement Gr eenber g: The Collected Essays and Criticism , vol. 4, Modernism with a V engeance, ed. John O’Brian (Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1964), 192-197. 21 V eevers, The Intersection of Materiality and Mattering. THE MA TERIALITY OF MODERNISMS 402 The reduced toxicity and ease of use resulting from the waterborn quality of acrylic emulsion paints is assured - ly what has contributed to their continued popularity . But what was novel for artists in the late 1950s was that the paint would dry almost instantly , and the next layer could be applied immediately without concern for dissolving the layer below . The wet-on-dry layering ability of acryl - ic media is one of the primary technical characteristics, along with it being fast drying, that the methodology of Molinari, T ousignant, and Gaucher relied on: they would apply several thin layers of acrylic paint with trust that the distinct colors of the individual layers would subtly ‘inform’ but not mix with one another . And the success of their crisp abutted ‘hard’ edges was contingent upon the integrity of the adjacent film to not bleed or blend. Hard- Edge painting would not have performed the way it did without the contribution of acrylic emulsion paint. The durability , accessibility , and affordability of syn - thetic paint made the outdoor mural campaigns of the Mexican mural artists and the spread of both their socialist propaganda and their material-methodology throughout the United States and Canada possible. The viscosity and fast drying characteristics of Duco car enamel led to the dripping technique associated with Pollock. And the sol- vent-based liquidity and high chroma of Magna facilitated the distinctive staining and blended effects achieved by Morris Louis, and the smooth unmodulated fields of color achieved by the W ashington Color school. Material, in all these instances, contributed to idea and innovation. There were a multitude of other factors involved, but novel ma - terial properties are a critical ingredient in each example. It is not the first time in art’ s history that medium has compelled new ideas and altered the space and place of painting. For instance, the development of the portable paint tube in the late eighteenth century facilitated plein- air painting directly leading to the nineteenth century MA TERIALITY AND MA TTERING 403 Impressionism movement 22 . What is curious about the historiography of new media is that while its introduction undeniably propelled new developments in art production, aside from noting the novelty of its use, historians rarely discuss the influential role of its contribution. The artist is always credited with discovery and invention. While innovations in art creation would not have oc - curred in the same way were it not for the influence of synthetic media, medium was not the only ingredient in- volved. New media was a critical component alongside other embedded and embodied sociocultural, political, and art historical materialities. For this reason, the becoming of Hard-Edge painting might be described as ‘autopoietic’, a term that I borrow from the anthropologist T im Ingold who describes: “the self-transformation over time of the system of relations within which an or ganism or artifact comes into being” 23 . The materialization of Hard-Edge painting was not specifically willed and not definitively determined by any one thing; it instead emerged from sev - eral different factors coming together at once. It material - ized from a backlash against traditional art figuration and narratives, groups of young artists experiencing post-war freedoms and driven to find new meaning for their produc - tion, art criticism that embraced the avant-garde and ab- stract art, and the industrial revolution driving expansion and decoration, which in turn drove paint manufactures to new capabilities, greater quantities, and broader availabil- ity . The influential role of materiality does not exceed the creative contribution of the artist, rather artist and material are ‘inside’ the process together . The human mind is not outside of matter as Aristotle postulated, but co-extensive 22 Herman Gluck, “The Dilemma of the Painter and Conservator in the Synthetic Age”, The Museums Journal vol. 54 (1954), 150. 23 Ingold, “In the Gathering Shadows of Material Things”, 87. THE MA TERIALITY OF MODERNISMS 404 with matter as posthumanist theory contends. For instance, Bocour and his nephew Sam Golden tried to imitate Morris Louis’ deceptively simple-looking technique and despite considerable effort, the paint makers were unable to duplicate the effects Louis achieved 24 . Artistic skill and ingenuity are still requisite: the new mediums influence the nature of materialization in a particular contingency , they do not express in vacuo. Nothing does. W e are, all of us, materials, humans, and environment combined, inside materialization; there is no immovable mover , as Aristotle postulated 25 . Art does not ‘begin’ with materials and nor does it ‘begin’ with artist-inspired ideas. It is always in a process of becoming, and its process is not causally line - ar . This is why Bocour and Golden could not reproduce a Louis painting. Not because they were not gifted with the same inspiration or technical skill (though this may have also been a contributing factor), but because they were en - gaging with making in a linear way . These examples detail how synthetic media contributed to new ideas, methodology , and expression, demonstrating that ideas alone do not make or ‘equate’ artworks. The rad - ical shifts in art creation that ensued in concert with novel synthetic media undermine the notion that ideas alone can fix what something is and how it matters. If artworks do not issue from ideas alone, they can neither be indetermi - nately fixed by ideas alone. Posthumanism contends that becoming is always ‘in process’, challenging the notion of the fully formed a pri - ori subject and the existence of mind/matter subject/object categories. While Hard-Edge paintings were created at a particular time and location, they are not soley historical, they are also right now . Rosi Braidotti explains: 24 Marontate, Synthetic Media and Modern Painting , 132. 25 Aristotle, “Physics, Book II and Metaphysics, Book XII”, 122-125. MA TERIALITY AND MA TTERING 405 A location is an embedded and embodied spatial but also temporal site: it is a memory , or rather , a set of coun - ter -memories, which are activated against dominant so- cial representations of subjectivity . 26 As these paintings move through time, they become networked within the contemporary zeitgeist and thus active contributors to memory and knowing in both the past and the present tense. However , while I contend that nothing can be fixed by a stable subject or object category indefinitely , this does not mean that there is no possibility of certainty . Karen Barad explains: “the existence of inde - terminacies does not mean that there are no facts, no his - tories, no bleeding – on the contrary , indeterminacies are constitutive of the very materiality of being” 27 . The notion of object stability is only possible if we subscribe to the theory that objects, materials, time and space are passive, mute, and inert. However , matter is not inert, it is inside of becoming with us. Likewise, we are inside becoming with these paintings. T oday , Hard-Edge paintings index ideology and mat - ter meeting at a particular place in time – an instance of high modernist ‘matterology’, if you will. They are like - wise symbolic of a certain ‘materiality of being’ that was privileged to the white male painters who created them in the mid-twentieth century . But they are not indefinitely fixed; they are on the move, and so are their matters. Each in their own way , Molinari, T ousignant, and Gaucher en- visioned their non-representational lar ge-scale paintings as being universal and capable of restructuring space and 26 Braidotti, “Punk women and riot girls”, 240. 27 Karen Barad, “Posthumanist Performativity: T oward an Understanding of How Matter Comes to Matter”, Signs vol. 28 . no. 3 (2003): 801-831. THE MA TERIALITY OF MODERNISMS 406 thus society 28 . This is reminiscent of W assily Kandinsky (1866-1944) equating abstraction with superiority and it being representative of the highest form of man and the highest form of art 29 ; Piet Mondrian (1872-1944) posit - ing that de Stijl abstract painting would unite us via its essential, universal form 30 ; and Kazimir Malevich (1879- 1935) insisting that Suprematist painting would model a “new world for their life” 31 . In the 1959 catalog for the Montréal Art Abstrait exhibition, semiologist Fernande Saint-Martin wrote, “for my part, I am convinced that the present-day painting… will reveal within the framework of a new logic, a new psychology and a new geometry , the deepest dimensions of the new man” 32 . These lar ge-scale, environmentally extrusive paintings were ‘walk-in-able’ as opposed to ‘see-at-able’: they did not offer the envi - ronment ‘in’ perspective; they were instead understood to offer a ‘new environment for a new perspective’ 33 . The Hard-Edge painters’ innovative explorations of purely 28 Fernande Sant-Martin, Art Abstrait (Montreal: École des Beaux-Arts, 1959), 12-27 January (exhibition catalogue), np. 29 W assily Kandisky , “The Spiritual in Art”, in Art in Theory 1900 - 1990: A Changing Anthology of Ideas, eds. Charles Harrison and Paul W ood (Oxford and Cambridge: Blackwell Publishers, 1998 [191 1]): 86-94. 30 Piet Mondrian, “Dialogue on the New Plastic”, in Art in Theory 1900 - 1990: A Changing Anthology of Ideas, eds. Charles Harrison and Paul W ood (Oxford and Cambridge: Blackwell Publishers, 1998 [1919]): 282-287, 284. 31 Kasimir Malevich, “The Question of Imitative Art”, in Art in Theory 1900 - 1990: A Changing Anthology of Ideas, eds. Charles Harrison and Paul W ood (Oxford and Cambridge: Blackwell Publishers, 1998 [1919]): 292-297, 294. 32 Sant-Martin, Art Abstrait , np. 33 V eevers, The Intersection of Materiality and Mattering , 72. MA TERIALITY AND MA TTERING 407 abstracted painterly space were unquestionably under - stood as having universal applicability . However , access to the universal was exclusive to men (white, predominantly heterosexual), in the mid-twenti - eth century . In the context of Abstract Expressionism and Color Field painting art historian Ann Gibson outlines the conundrum of women painters who attempted to engage with similar forms of expression: W omen could sacrifice, they could assist, but they could not win in any field that included heterosexual men. And the more solidly entrenched the dominant roster of Abstract Expressionism became (divided as it was into gesture and color field), the harder it was to add names that did not fit easily into that dual template. The better the suggested additions were, the more threatening to the movement’ s hard-won definition they became, and the more necessary to ignore. 34 The threat of being ignored and excluded was one thing; the stringency of the high modernist categories of inclusion and exclusion did not just prevent recognition, they also threatened gender identification if one persisted in coloring outside the lines. “A woman may take… a brush, in hand, but she cannot be a hero; ambition in a woman was considered dangerous, and a woman who became assertive enough to be a hero was, by definition, less of a woman” 35 . W e, as artists, curators, historians and conservators do not control the mattering of materiality indefinitely because we are each inside creation and con - tingent with it. As Barad explains, “agential cuts never 34 Ann Gibson, “Lee Krasner and W omen’ s Innovations in American Abstract Painting”, in W oman’ s Art Journal no. 2 (2007), vol. 28: 1 1-19, 13. 35 Gibson, “Lee Krasner and W omen’ s Innovations in American Abstract Painting”, 13. THE MA TERIALITY OF MODERNISMS 408 sit still […]. Inside/outside is undone. […] An uncanny topology: no smooth surfaces, willies everywhere” 36 . Nonetheless, within the high modernist socio-cultural mi- lieu concerned with or ganizing and dividing the senses, all matter was thought to be within the purview of absolute compartmentalized control. W ithin the extremes of this construct an artist’ s medium could only be understood as an extension of their form-giving mind, and their artwork its finite product: “each de-corporealized perception of - fered targeted and intense pleasures to the segmented per - cipient” 37 . Suturing the arbitrary division of mind/matter back together , the posthumanist embodied percipient is not only ‘re-segmented’, but also co-extended and embed - ded within mind-matter infinitum. So, while a few women abstract painters have latterly been written into high mod- ernist art history , such as Hilma af Klint (1862-1944) and Lee Krasner (1908-1984), the previously narrated rational, linear , progression of abstract painting is not significantly altered. In our conscientious historiographical backward folding canonical inclusion of previously excluded play - ers, we achieve a more representative population, but is it possible there is more work to do with the topology? In their continued mattering in the context of collecting institutions, exhibition curation, and scholarly writing, do Hard-Edge paintings nonetheless (inadvertently) continue to perform operations of exclusion? Given that material is co-extensive with idea – as is ar gued here – and the post - modern realization that the subject position of ‘who’ is speaking matters, it follows that closely attending to the material impact of women artists over this same period meaningfully changes the story of abstract art, just at the material influence of synthetic paint has. The present is not 36 Barad, Posthumanist Performativity . 37 Caroline A. Jones, Eyesight Alone: Clement Gr eenber g’ s Modernism and the Bur eaucratization of the Senses (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2005), 407. MA TERIALITY AND MA TTERING 409 one inevitable linear product of the past, rather tracing dif - ferent lines of inquiry reveals new ways of corresponding with both the present and the past. Bibliography Aristotle, “Physics, Book II and Metaphysics, Book XII”, in The Philosophy of Aristotle , trans. J.L. Creed and A.E. W ardman (New Y ork: New American Library , 1963). Karen Barad, “Diffracting Diffraction: Cutting T ogether- Apart”, Parallax vol. 20, iss. 3 (2014): 168-187. _______ “Posthumanist Performativity: T oward an Understanding of How Matter Comes to Matter”, Signs vol. 28 . no. 3 (2003): 801-831. Rosi Braidotti, “Punk W omen and Riot Girls”, Performance Philosophy (2015), vol. 1: 239-254. http://dx.doi.org/10.21476/ PP .2015.1 132 . Martha Buskirk, The Contingent Object of Contemporary Art (London and Massachusetts: MIT Press, 2004). Stuart Croll, “Overview of Developments in the Paint Industry since 1930”, in Modern Paints Uncover ed (Los Angeles: Getty Conservation Institute, 2006): 17-29. Ann Gibson, “Lee Krasner and W omen’ s Innovations in American Abstract Painting”, in W oman’ s Art Journal no. 2 (2007), vol. 28: 1 1-19. Herman Gluck, “The Dilemma of the Painter and Conservator in the Synthetic Age”, The Museums Journal vol. 54 (1954). Rebecca Gordon and Erma Hermens, The Artist’ s Intent in Flux , CeROArt [En ligne], Posted October 27, 2013 [accessed November 15], 2013. URL: http://ceroart.revues.or g/3527 Clement Greenberg, “Post Painterly Abstraction”, in Clement Gr eenber g: The Collected Essays and Criticism , vol. 4, Modernism with a V engeance, ed. John O’Brian (Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1964): 192-197. Hanna B Hölling, Revisions – Zen for Film (New Y ork: Bard Graduate Centre, 2015). T im Ingold, “In the Gathering Shadows of Material Things”, in Exploring Materiality and Connectivity in Anthr opology and MODERA TE BARBAROGENIUSES 501 this excess of feeling things” 58 . Because of industrializa- tion, the world has become more compact, full of stimuli, allowing Pessoa to predict a globalized form of sensation- ism: “the railway , the steamship, the telegraph, and the wireless inventions have thrown the shadow of their lines into our minds, and a telepathy has grown up among all the peoples of the world; we become open members of a freemasonry of sensibility whose symbol is Electricity” 59 . T o come to terms with this bombardment of stimuli, the cultivation of a whole man capable of engaging with a va- riety of inputs while practicing self-restraint is necessary . Is Pessoa’ s disbelief in a unified personality and poet - ics not ultimately a form of Balkanization? “Pessoa, par - adoxically , endeavored to construct a small but complete universe of interrelated parts forming a coherent whole” 60 . Is this not precisely the definition of the Mediterranean, “a small but complete universe of interrelated parts form - ing a whole”? And finally , doesn’ t the idea of “man as a universe” ultimately bring Pessoa closer to a humanitarian concern for the fate of humankind in the twentieth centu- ry along the lines of Camus’ s “if we are not, I am not”? Álvaro de Campos writes in 1931: I feel, in this weariness, that I’m all of humanity . It’ s a weariness that almost turns my bones into flesh… W e all share the same lot… Flies with caught wings, we stagger Through the world, a spider web spanning the chasm. 61 [ Sinto-me toda a humanidade através do cansaço – 58 Pessoa, Sobr e a arte literária , 74. The English transla - tion is Pessoa’ s. 59 Pessoa, Sobr e a arte literária , 73. 60 Zenith, “Introduction: The Birth of a Nation”, XXIX. 61 Pessoa, A Little Lar ger Than the Entir e Universe , 244. [My emphasis]. [Document text truncated for crawler view.]