Geometric Abstraction on Paper

AUG 24–DEC 10, 2023 • GALLERY 9

HARD EDGED: GEOMETRIC ABSTRACTION

ON PAPER presents eleven leading abstract painters from the second part of the twentieth century. The exhibition, drawn from HoMA’s permanent collection, includes artworks by artists Josef Albers, Bridget Riley, Victor Vasarely, and Ad Reinhardt among others.

The non-representational prints examine the relationship between shape, color, and perception. Evolving out of the Cubist dismantling of established conventions of form and space, geometric or “hard-edged” abstraction became one of the most significant and enduring pictorial languages in the last century.

Reducing visual art to its most simple elements, such as geometric shapes and linear forms, perception itself is an intrinsic part of their experience. Albers’ Palatial from his “Homage to a Square: Soft Edge-Hard Edge” series, for example, uses color and shape to create the illusion of a flat surface that both recedes and hovers above the paper. Riley’s Flat Image and Vasarely's Oeruen 6 use repeating shapes to create optical illusions that seem to move as the viewer moves, while Reinhardt’s Screenprint #1 challenges the limits of visual perception as purple rectangles emerge out of inky blacks.

Hard Edged marks the start of HoMA once again rotating exhibitions in Gallery 9. Installations over the next year will combine familiar works along with some rarely or never-before-shown treasures held in HoMA’s permanent collections of Works on Paper and Photography.