Biographies

Wladimir Wroblewski () This Polish artist came to England in January 1906. He tells us (in The Art Alphabet) that his life before then was chaos. In London, he lived in a Polish Students’ Home, where he practiced yoga and studied logic with the philosopher Lutoslawski and “the use of algebra in everyday life” with Mary Everst Boole, the wife of the mathematician George Boole. In 1908 he left the Polish Students’ Home and begain to paint again. At that time he came across de Fonseka’s and saw the demonstrations of Raymond Duncan in Greek gymnastics and dancing. He had friends who were Theosophists, and it was they who published his book, The Art Alphabet, some years after his death, from a typescript he had left to his friend Ellen Jowett. This book represents Wladimir Wroblewski’s attemt to generate an alphabet based on a classification of basic graphic forms, giving rise to a complex symbology which points to a cosmic logos. The book is organized in the form of discussions between a student and guru, whose last message is, “By scientific thinking you will draw in divine wisdom; by artistic thinking you will give it out; this shall be the rhythmic breath of your theosophic life.” After the dialogue section, comes pages from the notebook of the disciple or chela. He began working on what became this book some time around 1910, wrote much of the final version in 1922, and revised and extended it in 1931. produced a page of pen and ink drawings from his notebook in a supplement to the issue for September 7, 1911, and an article by him, “Towards the Art of the Future,” appeared in May 1912, . On the Truth of Decorative Art The New Age (NA 11.11:257) Most of the above information has been drawn from the account of his life in The Art Alphabet. We have a copy of his book, from which we reproduce here the front cover and some illustrations: