Analysis of Space and Time in Figurative Works of Art

The influence exercised by the ‘Byzantine’ icon on the conception of space in modern art is not limited to Malevich’s work. Between 1921 and 1924, the Russian mathematician and theologian Pavel Florensky (1882-1937) was hired to teach ‘Analysis of spatiality in the work of art’ at the Higher State Technical-Artistic Laboratories of Moscow (VKhUTEMAS) —the equivalent of Bauhaus in Russia.

Florensky’s teaching experience at this school—breeding ground for important representatives of modern painting—resulted in the writing of the essay ‘Analysis of space and time in figurative works of art’ in 1925. In this essay, Florensky proved that the perspective is just one way among others to represent real space on a two-dimensional surface, thus questioning the scientific character of academic painting and the modern rules of scientific knowledge, based on the absolute distinction between subject and object.