The Typographic Imaginary in Early Modern English Literature: A Conversation with Rachel Stenner (In-Person and online. 20th February 2024)
February 2, 2024
Breton, Surrealism and Black Humour: A Workshop (In-Person and online. 20th February 2024)
March 27, 2024

Diagrams and Modern Art: A Workshop (12th March 2024)

How do diagrams relate to modern art? Are Modernist paintings and collages actually diagrams? How do we tell the difference between what is and isn’t a diagram? What makes something a diagram?

Using practical exercises and examples from Cubism to Surrealism, from Picabia to Kandinsky, from colour wheels to isotypes, we will explore these questions and ways that these questions might enable us to experiment with the diagram.

The session will draw upon the below quotes:

The theorum of Pythagoras is proved by a diagram. Leonardo’s drawings of light striking a sphere are diagrams, but the works of Mondrian, although made up of straight lines, are not diagrams because they are not done in order to prove or measure some experience, but to please the eye. They are cryptoblots or blots masquerading as diagrams.

Kenneth Clark, ‘The Blot and the Diagram’

The metaphorical model of Cubism is the diagram: the diagram is a visible, symbolic representation of invisible processes, forces, and structures. A diagram need not eschew certain aspects of appearances: but these too will be treated symbolically as signs, not as imitations or re-creations.

John Berger, ‘The Moment of Cubism’ p.85

Session Lead: Bradley Tuck

In Person: Southern Belle, 3, Waterloo Street, Hove

On Zoom

Meeting ID: 848 6829 5306

Passcode: 007128

Time: 7:00 pm Doors. 7:30pm-10:00pm

RSVP and invite your friends!

Exploding Appendix Avant-garde Art Practice and Research Group