Fusing lines and patterns for a colorful explosion of math-meets-art
The solo exhibition of Channa Horwitz (1932-2013) is in full swing at the Lisson Gallery Shanghai, which offers a dynamic exploration of lines, shapes and patterns.
The exhibition highlights the artist's rigorous conceptual structures, self-determined rules and her fascination with capturing space, movement and time.
Horwitz is renowned for her role in the conceptual art and West Coast minimalist movement, specifically, her mathematically constructed compositions which played with numbers 1 to 8.
"The less choices I had, the more I could discover," she noted.
After leaving school, Horwitz's primary interest was in reducing her choices to the least possible number. Within the rules she had established for herself, she created a multitude of complex and intricate drawings, paintings, moving sculptures and performances. The rules she applied to each work were rigorously followed. Woven by their various configurations and set against a graph, these patterns overlap, and move incrementally through meticulous precision.
"As an artist, I experience freedom through limitation and structure. It would appear that limitation and structure are dichotomies to freedom, but through experience, I have found them to be synonymous and the basis of freedom," she said in an interview.
"Canon" series
The works on display reveal her pursuit of freedom through the imposition of a fixed set of rules. The "Canon" series presents a kaleidoscopic grid, where layering and conjoining lines create a sense of movement as the colors burst and go parallel to one another. Works in the series involve an expansive relationship of numerical sequence, line and system.
"Moire" series
The "Moiré" series, done in casein and gold leaf, shares a close methodology and use of systems. It was when creating the "Moiré" that Horwitz realized she had been working with eight angles. She then gave each of the angles numbers and color as she searched out all possible combinations.
The "Moiré" series provides an introduction to the "Rhythm of Line ll" series with various shades of pink, orange, red, blue, green, and the inclusion of gold leaf.
Each work from the series is composed from the pairing of two sets of eight lines, wherein each area of intersection creates intricate and unique moiré patterns. At first glance, these pieces appear mathematical and computer-generated, yet all of the artist's algorithms were entirely self-generated, resolutely hand-made and non-technological.
"Rhythm of Line II" series
Exhibition info:
Date: Through October 22, Tuesdays-Saturdays, 11am-6pm
Venue: Lisson Gallery
Address: 2/F, 27 Huqiu Rd
