On the Origins of Abstraction: Seurat and the Screening of History

Abstract

On the origins of abstraction: Seurat and the screening of history' Sometime around 1883 Seurat painted the image of a ruined building on the surface of a small wooden panel [fig.1].The rectilinear shell of the four-storey structure is framed to the left by a sunlit tree and to the right by a distant edifice and a mass of darker foliage.In front of the building we see a large pond, though the visual clues are abbreviated: it takes a moment to recognize that the assorted strokes of paint represent the horizontal surface of a body of water, and the pond's circular form is barely telegraphed by the brief indication of its curved front edge in the painting's lower left corner.Above the pond is a light brown strip whose spatial orientation is equally difficult to decipher: is it a fence, a possibility suggested by the almost imperceptible vertical striations that mark the paint surface; or is it a ground plane sloping up towards the dark band that hides the base of the building?Over to the left are two summarily indicated elements that are even harder to read: a pallid white form and a light green rectangle at the painting's edge.

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