This abstract painting is from a large series of paintings and lithographs done by Le Corbusier between 1930 and 1963. Each work in the series consists of many of the same general elements, including a woman, bull, violin, and mountain. Bull III in particular is one of the most refined paintings in terms of color and form, containing only primary colors and lacking almost any instances of gradient. These extreme abstractions set the framework for any number of ambiguous interpretations of elements. The loose interpretations allow for unique extrapolations from plan to section to volume, the sequence of which is included below.
In order to create a better understanding of the painting, it was important to not only analyze the systems of proportion used, but also the interpreted movement and relationships between compositional objects. Because these movements happened in a dimension beyond the painting, it became necessary to understand the layers within the painting, creating a sense of depth.
By tracking these movements through space, and creating relationships between objects, my understanding of the painting became nothing short of watching a film. Corbusier’s shapes became a series of frames spinning in a reel of endless movement. The film is something that might even iterate on itself, encompassing other Bull paintings within Corbusier’s series.
As the interpreted movement of the painting was sectionally extrapolated, the endless sequence became a number of individual motions, some of which were sectionally and axonometrically represented. These individual sequences created discreet moments in which adjacent frames possessed phenomenal transparency: where the frame no longer belonged to a single process, instead acting as an intersection of two movements.
After thinking sectionally, interpretation of the painting changed yet again, this time beginning to imagine individual plans as form generators. This led to delicate interaction between solid and void by separating and treating objects differently in distinct areas. The most obvious instance happens inside the red shape in the middle of the composition, which turns surrounding solid masses into voids where they intersect, creating a dynamic sense of depth while viewing the model.
Following the plan as form generator, the waffle model provides a unique ability to treat only section as a form generator. In this interpretation, the section worked in two primary ways to create a dynamic model. First, the main portion of the model follows a morphological logic, slowly transitioning from one condition to another. The second method is aligning the darker grid in the middle by acknowledging the only right angle in the painting, and using it’s angle to orient and objectify that portion of the composition.
The project finished with a wood model, which acted as yet another smaller iteration on ideas from before, but now with greater resolution than ever. Elevationally, the model gains a great degree of fidelity, as it is no longer limited by the same stepped nature of laser cut models. This allows for pieces to flow together and help the viewer understand the way the painting has been envisioned as moving through time.
