"The structure of visual space relies upon the framework provided by the vertical and horizontal. This framework is the visual 'tonic', the zero base at which tension is at a minimum." (Rudolf Arnheim, New Essays on the Psychology of Art).
Although the horizontal-vertical grid with its 'zero base' of perception has often been dismissed as an antinatural, antimimetic determined materialism (Rosalind Kraus), still I believe that early modernists were on to something fundamental when speaking about the grid's mythic power to deal with materiality while at the same time providing us with a release into belief (Mind, Being, Spirit).
The development of the horizontal-vertical framework in art does not necessarily have to end in an empty canvas. Its development, in my view, will depend upon the power of the mentality in the painting and perhaps also the associative possibilities for the viewer.
Greg Officer (Jan. 2012)