Quadrilaterals
Artist
Harry Bertoia
(American, 1915 - 1978)
Date1944-1945
MediumMonotype: Ink on wove paper
DimensionsFramed: 33 1/8 × 43 1/8 × 1in. (84.1 × 109.5 × 2.5cm)
Overall: 25 x 38 1/4in. (63.5 x 97.2cm)
Image: 24 5/16 x 37 9/16in. (61.8 x 95.4cm)
Overall: 25 x 38 1/4in. (63.5 x 97.2cm)
Image: 24 5/16 x 37 9/16in. (61.8 x 95.4cm)
ClassificationsPRINTS
Credit LineEdward W. Root Bequest
Object number57.79
Description On View
Not on viewCollections
CopyrightPresumed copyright: the artist or the artist's representative/heir(s) / Licensed by ARS, New York, NY.
Label TextRoot purchased this work around 1945, at a time when he recognized a new generation of younger American artists was developing an abstract visual language to express profound states of being for which traditional forms of representation were not sufficient. Root used this monotype as an illustration in his lecture titled "Some Characteristics of Modern Art" given at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute in 1947. Using an interpretative approach that reflects prevailing ideas about the psychology of abstract forms, Root stated that Bertoia's grid of geometric shapes "suggests to me . . . the idea of futurity. I find myself expectant and a little apprehensive before the hole-like darkness in the center of the design."
PDS & MEM
