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Rhomboids

Quadrilaterals--squares, rectangles, rhomboids, trapezia, trapezoids--and later, perhaps, curves dealt with by integral calculus and analytic geometry. They have played an important part in all types of perspectival systems and devices, in Cubism, abstract, and nonobjective art (Constructivism, Suprematism, Neo-plasticism and other twentieth century ventures), in architecture and in three dimensional design. Normally, they are associated with man-made or crystalline forms--those that often reveal their structures openly. In a drawing, the paper is the original geometrical plane. It is made to give way to other planes inscribed upon it, some paralleling the surface, some in overlapping formations, some tilting variously in depth, some creating subtle transparent constructs. Cubism gave a new syntax and impetus to all of these planar functions. In those movements that sprang up quickly in the wake of Cubism, rectilinear planes, straight lines, and a very limited range of colors became the principel means of formal invention.

[Harlan, Calvin. Vision & Invention, An Introduction to Art Fundamentals. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1986.]

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