Chapter Three: The Heliocentric Hypothesis

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Development of Spatial Dynamics
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show that we tend to organize the placing of either physical surfaces or graphic
marks in empty space to create a seemingly "right", meaningful, or vital grouping;
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of a work of art- of its physical form and its spatial form
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But in perception they and the space they shape are indivisible

But ask yourself once again if you are not reading the spaces as much as the
surfaces.  The painting appears remarkably unforced, free and natural; although
                                                 each brush surface seems as surely placed,
                             no surface appears premeditated.  Like all apparently simple
             wonders, however, this work can only result from a profound distillation
       of life's perceptual experiences.

Figure 3-3
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We cannot remain unaffected by the shape and dimensions of space in which
    we live.
The outdoors man, in company with the prophet, seeks the mountain top or the
limitless desert.  The recluse will shut himself away within the smaller
confines of his room; factories are made airy and spacious in order to increase
production; miners work eight hours a day in cramped and claustrophobic conditions;
the houses of the rich show shape spaced for the maximum aesthetic effect.
Whatever the context, most of us react to space.

There is no doubt in my mind that we might call "plastic sensibility" is as
much unconscious as it is conscious- that artistic creativity does not spring
             only from the conscious level.

I think it is true to say that free-action brush marks which produce such
          fine continuous surfaces, have a more powerful initial impact.
       But, generally speaking, the smaller, discontinuous point surface
    creates the more infinite and ambiguous layout of space.

It is what might be called the calligraphic way.
The written form of language- of individual letters or lines of script-
has been traditionally treated in the Far East as an elegant and rhythmic
form of art.
The brush is the traditional instrument of Eastern calligraphy, and it is
       the brush mark which gives Eastern art generally its grace and style.

The shaping of space through a clever manipulation of surface is one result
    of the so-called Op (optical) movement in art.
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