I : 16
Four different temperaments of a very first group of serial variants, derived from and named after an elaborated G-clef (or treble clef or violin clef), started about 1931 abroad and ended about 1935 in the United States. These were developed mainly in so-called colorless colors — various shades of gray plus black and white.

These show that any shape permits and invites various readings, which are caused by changing associations and different reactions and which result all together in a change of meaning.

Such changes of meaning depend on altered relationships of the parts of the compositions, on changing contrasts and affinities (different groupings), on placement, and on more or less concentration or emphasis. All together, this changes the direction of our reading of the content of the pictures. This is where we begin and end our wandering through the picture, where we return to or meet again. On this journey we notice, first and most quickly, the large before the small, the loud before the soft, the bright before the dull; in short, all increased or intensified qualities and activities. Compare, for instance, each of the lower parts of the figures — the “torso.” All are of different character though precisely of the same shape. They even appear of different size, extension, weight, and density, and the movement of the spiral of different speed, swirling more outward or inward, increasing or decreasing in tempo, looking more flat or more oblique, and so more dynamic or more static. (From an early commentary for a slide lecture.)