Éléments de la Construction Picturale
Paris: Editions Antoine Roche, 1932.
First Edition.
Edition limited to 500 numbered copies, of which this copy is no. 137.
In Part One of the " Éléments de la Construction Picturale", Power details different methods for the construction of pictures, dynamic symmetry, the golden point, with examples of complex 4th dimensional lines, mentioning Picasso (among others) and the aesthetics of Cubism. In Part Two, Powers exacts a strict geometrical analysis of the work of Raphael, Rubens, Duccio, Gris and Signorelli
"I do not wish to suggest for one moment that Art is an affair of mathematical formulae and geometric rules. In the last resort the artist's sensibility is the measure of his excellence, and nothing that he can learn will ever replace it. An insensitive artist will mishandle these means as he will do any others, but I hope that the analyses at the end of this book will show that many great artists have used geometric methods to complete and balance their work and bring it into proportion with the space it had to occupy, and even, as with the moderns, as a suggestion for fresh formal arrangements..."
Introduction, J.W. Power
Australian artist and philanthropist, John Joseph Wardell Power (1881 -1943) bequeathed his estate to the University of Sydney thereby establishing the Power Institute of Fine Arts. Power's bequest funded the purchase of over 3000 works which became the core collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA).
Quarto, bound in decorated paper boards, 101 pages + 6 pockets filled with b&w plates and transparencies, upper right hand corner bumped, covers scuffed, very good.
Price (AUD): $1,200.00 other currencies