Vladimir Markov The Principles of Creativity in the Plastic [Visual] Arts: Faktura

In Vladimir Markov's essay 'On the 'Principle of Weightiness' in 'African Sculpture', the 'principle of weightiness' becomes a capacious term related not only to the construction of African sculpture but also to the conditions of its creation, the mechanism of perception and the concept of space. As in Iskusstvo Negrov, here Markov maintains that African sculpture is merely a symbol of the organic whole, where volumes are rendered as abstract weights. Markov made a tantalising passing reference to 'weightiness' in his notes on medieval manuscripts. In 1912, he announced his plans to write on the principle of 'Weightiness' in a future text. Africa does not only dismember and amalgamate. It also omits. It can omit the organic relief of bones, muscles and the calligraphy of wrinkles. In African sculptures we do not see the creases of clothes, and we rarely see ornament. Their simple masses are remarkable only in terms of form, acting as they do as their 'weightiness'.