A Symphony of Squares: Geometric Art at the Bechtler

by Linda Luise Brown

Enlarge

Picture by A piece by Günter Haese

November 8, 2011

Geometry and Experimentation: European Art of the 1960s and 1970s is at the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art through February 27, 2012.

There are a lot of squares in the new exhibition at the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art: solitary squares, squares within squares, squares dissolving into squares - and within the interior of the galleries on the 4th floor, there are square wall openings that reveal other squares across the atrium. There are also cubes, one of them balanced on its point like the Apple store in Manhattan. And of course there are other geometric shapes too, almost all of them made with a precise hand.

Geometry and Experimentation: European Art of the 1960s and 1970s is drawn exclusively from the museum’s own collection. A few pieces have been previously displayed – including Victor Vasarely’s "Tridem K," a painting of a complex stacking of cubes – but most of the work in this show will be new to you. This geometry-inspired European movement of the 1960s and ‘70s covered more than a decade of artistic activity that accentuated geometric precision, in which the “effects of color, pattern, and geometry” are the themes.

Four main artists comprise the focus of the exhibition: Swiss artists Max Bill and R. P. Lohse, English “Op Art” painter Bridget Riley, and the divine Hungarian colorist and geometrist Vasarely. Artists less well known in the U.S., including Gianfredo Camesi and Julio Le Parc, are among the 27 artists represented through the 58 works.

“Objects were selected based on the artists’ appetite for exploring geometry, line and color,” said Pam Davis, Director of Communications and Marketing at the Bechtler. “The results are surprising in formal complexity, intellectual rigor, meditative beauty and occasional humor.”

Printmaking, especially serigraphy, is the emphasis in this particular show, but the exhibition also contains excellent examples of painting, drawing, and sculpture that include elements of ceramic, Plexiglas, and other metals.

A pair of small, meticulous serigraphs by Max Bill hang at either side of the entrance to the show. The precision and economy of these vivid prints is in marked contrast to the sloppy banality of a Warhol print that hangs adjacent to the show. Inside the three rooms, you’ll find the precise geometry used in this exhibition creates varying effects, with most of the 3-D pieces being more complex, and some of the serigraphs being more profound in their simplicity.  Bill’s delightful primary colors and the formal qualities of his geometric shapes make me think that there is something innately satisfying about returning to “the basics,” and that all design students should visit and revisit this show. Being schooled in architecture and industrial design as well as art, Bill has something to offer anyone interested in design.

Along one wall are examples from a collection of serigraphs by several artists from the 1970 publication Recherche, expérimentation. Created simultaneously for the same portfolio, these artists were “united by their interest in geometry… which resulted in a variety of perspectives and approaches from the subtlest and elemental uses of line and geometrical form, to others that are complex and dense and almost impenetrable,” noted Pam Davis. 

Another striking piece, now almost 40 years old, is Swiss artist Jean Pfaff’s stunning serigraph print on white stock paper.  This piece bridges time from 1972 – and is as elemental and quickening as a Pink Floyd cover. (Think Dark Side of the Moon).

Geometry is well hung and sensitive to the museum’s spaces, presenting the viewer with interesting side-by-side comparisons. For example, it features a few visually dazzling examples of early Bridget Riley – visually kinetic and scrupulously executed -- alongside a gorgeous wall-mounted porcelain relief (1960) in studied understatement by her mentor Victor Pasmore.

Besides the two-dimensional examples in the show, the “Geometric” group’s crisp and efficient approach to art is seen in such works as a pair of Plexi and metal sculptures on display by Gianfredo Camesi. These floor pieces are straightforward and beautifully executed. They represent the “Alpha” to the organic constructions of Jean Tinguely’s “Omega” style, as posed beautifully through one of the aforementioned square-cut windows for viewing across the atrium. As an additional delight, the museum’s Sol LeWitt wall drawing installation on the first floor becomes part of the show when viewed from above, from the square atrium window on the 4^th floor. 

The influence of German Bauhaus school underpins both 2-D and 3-D examples in the show. Decades after Bauhaus was shuttered, shunted, and splintered prior to World War II, this later generation of visual artists on view here seems to have kept its lessons alive while embracing and synthesizing the high-tech and scientific tools of their own world. While assimilating more modern information, they maintain a classic attention to detail -- rather breathtaking in our post-digital world where we sometimes forget the value of artistic technique.

And indeed, as the museum wall text suggests, when “…a group of artists within a single generation experiment in a similar aesthetic frame of reference the diversity of results can be breathtaking and inspiring.” Perhaps it’s simply world-weariness on my part, but I find it unduly refreshing to see a literally measured response to three-dimensions. In the quasi-Baroque fashionista art world of today, with furbelows and excess everywhere you look, it’s a relief to the eye to see something restrained, even approaching minimalism.

These exciting excavations from the Bechtler collection remain on view through February 27, 2012.