Art Genre: Geometric Art - Esther

Victor Vasarely, Zebra (1937)

Anyone that knows me knows I’m horrible at maths. I get by with what I have & what I need to but scratch the surface & I’ll just explode with fear, frustration & resentment. I was once on a maths course where the lecturer said, “The answer is (whatever the number was) – what is the question?” There was a right answer & some guy got it straight away. I knew how he did it. Witchcraft. 

But there was a vibe about the situation where it deliberately excluded others. It wasn’t about teaching you anything, more about showing how clever they were & unless you knew too, they were better than you. Everyone else in the room seemed very excited about it. How their long winters must fly by, I thought.    

Part of the problem for me is that I don’t see the point in knowing a lot of it. Practical maths, life skills: fine. Beyond that, don’t trouble me with it. It’s too difficult. I admit: I allow myself to shut down. As long as someone in the world knows how to do it, I think it’s okay. 

In my own art however, I use a lot of measurement & shape. It’s important for me to know how to use angles, measure distances & sizes & be precise from time to time. My favourite thing about maths is the circle. There are so many facts about circles that are different to every other shape. That I can get on board with. That I can get excited about.

So yes, geometry I like. Up to Pythagoras at least; to be honest that’s where maths & I part company again. It has the visual ability to soothe but think about it too deeply & I’m lost.

I’m trying to prepare you for the fact that this will be more about the art & less about the mathematics behind it. Strictly speaking, the term “Geometric Art” in art history refers to an ancient Greek period of pot/vase making with particular styles of decoration but for our purposes, we’re talking about the art of shape, angles & measurements. Some of it might be better described as “Geometric Abstraction.” Unlike that stupid maths course, there’s more than one answer.

Georges Braque (1882-1963), France

Mandora (1909-10)

Yes, I know this is Cubism. I know – but geometry is what Cubism is all about. Transformation via abstraction via shape. When you can appreciate the reductive element of it, you can get a handle on it & the older I get (perhaps the more reduced I get…), the more I like it. There’s a truly disrupted feeling about Braques’s mandora (a type of lute), again an appearance of explosion, like a premonition of the splitting of the atom. Whilst the colours probably date it, nevertheless it is hard to see how Braque achieved the composition & form so beautifully.  

Sinta Tantra (1979), UK/Bali

Modern Times (Night) (2020)

Using forms & colour that look to me as if they could have been made 100 years ago & despite their asymmetry & lack of pattern, Tantra’s works are often very satisfying. I admire the precision she achieves in paint in large & small scale works.

Nicolas Dubreuille (1976), France

Sans titre (2019)

Dubreuille steers his work away from a sometimes traditionally dull style of geometric art & towards something more whimsical. He does this in two & three dimensions & in various sizes with his use of colour. His work is enhanced by its changing appearance from different vantage points. 

Romicon Revola (Romi) (?), India

Biosphere 12 (2018)

If this stainless steel sculpture isn’t peak geometric gratification, I don’t know what is.

Paul Klee (1879-1940), Switzerland

Red Balloon (1922)

Klee worked in various styles & was a true innovator in many, but is perhaps best known for his geometric works. 

Wan Yang (1983), China

C No. 3b (2012)

This reminds me of a more interesting version of fractal art, which was big for a while. Whereas fractal art is more achievable digitally, due to its relentless precise repetition, this painting is more broken up & exploded.

Piet Mondrian (1872-1944)

Composition B (No. II) with Red (1935)

You can’t have this list without Piet. You just can’t. Perhaps the most evolved style of anyone exploring geometric abstraction, it’s as simplified yet meaningful as there is. At first influenced by Cubism, he developed the name Neo-Plasticism for his works that incorporated only the three primary colours with black horizontal & vertical lines.

Victor Vasarely (1906-1997), Hungary-France

Vonal Stri (1975)

Vasarely is credited with being the creator & leading exponent of the Op Art movement, Zebra (above) being thought to be one of the first works of Op Art. Yet, there is no doubt that as he abstracted his pieces further, the appearance of movement & optical illusion became more prevalent. He explored ideas of perspective, volume & visual kinetics. Here Vonal Stri includes the element of colour theory to create the illusion of depth & dimension.

Zanis Waldheims (1909-1993), Latvia

Unknown title

An artist for whom the expression “it’s complicated” might have been invented. Following a litany of personal family tragedies, Waldheims was driven to rebel against the Soviet occupiers of his country through his art. His had an almost esoteric approach to geometric abstract art-making, seeking to develop a philosophy & an alternative artistic language to counter the propaganda of words & images used against people. 

MC Escher (1998-1972), Netherlands

Four Regular Solids (1961)

The Master of Geometry in art. Not so much abstraction but turning maths into an art. Tessellation, symmetry, measurement (so much measurement), reflection, division of planes, dimension, pattern, polygons, ideas about infinity. Even his illusions are based on mathematical concepts. Despite questions about whether his works are maths or art or something else entirely, he understood enough (much undoubtedly through visual & innate perceptions) about geometry to distort it, disrupt it, delight us & mess with our minds. As time went on, he began to see the world through the lens of mathematics & this is reflected in many of the works we know well today.