• Many artists sought to use artistic expression as a tool to give new meaning and a sense of purpose to the architecture of modern life - not only that of buildings and infrastructure, but the architectural structure of the image itself.
     
    We’re exploring some of the artworks that define this search for a logical system in which to live, whether they be images of the city itself, works created by artists who were also architects, or images inspired by the implications of a self-sustaining structure.
  • Sol LeWitt, Isometric Figures 5, 2002

    Sol LeWitt

    Isometric Figures 5, 2002
    LeWitt's linocuts are luscious, vivid and crisp. The combination of a good idea well executed is incredibly satisfying. Up close, the ink has an almost velvety quality. Discussing his work, the artist stated that “in my case, I used the elements of these simple forms - square, cube, line and colour - to produce logical systems. Most of these systems were finite; that is, they were complete using all possible variations. This kept them simple.”
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  • Agnes Martin, Untitled IV from Paintings and Drawings 1974-1990, 1991

    Agnes Martin

    Untitled IV from Paintings and Drawings 1974-1990, 1991
    One of ten lithographs created to accompany Martin's major retrospective at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam in 1991. Discussing the initial inspiration behind the grid motif, Martin recalled that "...when I first made a grid I happened to be thinking of the innocence of trees and then this grid came into my mind and I thought it represented innocence, and I still do, and so I painted it and then I was satisfied. I thought, this is my vision."
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  • Fernand Leger, La Ville: Les Toits, 1959

    Fernand Leger

    La Ville: Les Toits, 1959
    This lithograph comes from the portfolio La Ville (The City), which consists of twenty-nine lithographs featuring scenes of people, life and activity in the artist's beloved Paris. Léger began the project in 1954 but unfortunately passed away in the summer of 1955. His wife, along with Fernand Mourlot and the publisher Tériade, assembled the rest of Léger's studies and finished plates to complete the project and it was eventually printed and published in 1959. This image celebrates the artist’s fascination with the built environment.
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  • Piet Mondrian, New York City, 1942 from A Portfolio of Ten Paintings, 1967

    Piet Mondrian

    New York City, 1942 from A Portfolio of Ten Paintings, 1967
    This piece comes from the sought-after portfolio of screenprints published in 1967. Ives-Sillman, Inc was one of only a handful of publishers to produce silkscreen prints and photographs as part of their artist monographs. Over two decades from 1958 until Ives's death in 1978, Norman Ives and Sewell Sillman collaborated with some of the most important artists of the era. After escaping the Second World War in Europe, Mondrian made his home in New York, where he was inspired by the neat architecture, bustling energy of the streets, and the city's thriving jazz scene. In the context of his new environment, his work underwent a profound evolution, with his famous black lines giving way to combinations of pure colour.
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  • Alexander Calder, El Circulo de Piedra, 1971

    Alexander Calder

    El Circulo de Piedra, 1971
    This lithograph was Calder's contribution to the Circulo de Piedra [The Stone Circle] portfolio. Featuring lithographs from fifteen artists including Miró and Tàpies, the set was inspired by the solidarity the contributors felt with Carlos Franqui, an exiled Cuban author, poet and political activist. The lithographs were originally accompanied by poems composed by Franqui. The title is a reference both to the lithographic process and to the circle of artists while in exile.
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  • Frank Stella, Fortin de las Flores I, 1967

    Frank Stella

    Fortin de las Flores I, 1967
    This work refers directly to Stella's Mitered Maze paintings, begun in 1962. Prior to this series, the artist's work had emphasised the  flatness of the picture surface, but the addition of four diagonal lines into his compositions introduced a new sense of spatial illusionism. In many of these works, Stella took the ingenious step of offsetting one of the lines from the corner of the canvas, preventing the four from meeting in the exact centre of the composition. This disruption to the rotational format of the image has the effect of drawing the eye deeper into the maze, and creates a rhythmic sense of push and pull.
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