The Beauty of Geometry and Art of Minimalism
New Academy art exhibit explores the beauty of the minimalist art movement, which saw a renaissance 1960s and 70s.
Published September 8, 2004
By Jennifer Tang
Academy Contributor

In the 19th century, mathematicians such as David Hilbert turned to the work of Euclid, the ancient Greek mathematician, for new ways in which to study geometry. Hilbert uncovered new foundations of geometry by reducing mathematics to its most basic elements: lines, squares, circles, and triangles. Reflecting this line of thought, European and Russian artists in the early 1900’s began producing art based on the simplicity of ancient geometric shapes. Known as Minimalism, this movement later took the art world by storm during the 1960’s and ’70s.
To celebrate the ways in which geometry has inspired art, the New York Academy of Sciences is presenting a new exhibit, “Plane Geometry: Minimalist Work on Paper”, which will run from September 8 to October 29, 2004. The exhibit brings together about a dozen artists whose work reveals how planes of geometry can inspire artworks of startling beauty.
Included are works such as Constellations II (1967) by Jacob Drachler, which features a grid structure filled with a vocabulary of shapes (circles and squares) that are repeated in various arrangements (“constellations”). Another work, Trepass, offers a dense grid filled with gradations of color, reflecting Julian Stanszak’s study of visual perceptions.
Randomness Within Rules
Geometric shapes are also prominent in Left Turn (1979), by Alan D’Arcangelo. Here, the artist uses geometric shapes derived from road signs to give the illusion that the shapes recede into space, as if they are part of a road. Another bold design, “Untitled”, by Jimmy Ernst, son of Max Ernst, the famous Surrealist painter, presents a stick figure and the “X”-shape of a traffic sign.
Other artists include Alexander Calder, Patrick Hughes and Kenneth Martin. This fascinating collection of works from Minimalism’s heyday in the 1960’s and ’70s is from the collection of the Binghamton University Art Museum. The show will go on to Binghamton from November 5 to December 10. Lynn Gamwell, artist and chair of the Department of Art History at the School of Visual Arts, is the curator.
“Artists seeking ideal proportions have always come under the spell of numbers and mathematics,” Ms. Gamwell observed. “The current age has been driven by the possibilities of generating seemingly random phenomena from a set of precise rules.”
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