Project for Wood and Strings, Trezion II

Today’s ArtDrop is Project for Wood and Strings, Trezion II, an oil, gesso, and pencil on board. It is a quintessential work of Dimensionism by modern sculptor Barbara Hepworth from 1959.

The image shows an abstract two-dimensional painting that appears to pulse into and out of its plane with only the use of arcs, straight lines, and gradations of white, cerulean, and grey. Hepworth created a sense of tension, contraction, and expansion that successfully quits the plane and enters space as defined in the Dimensionism Manifesto of 1936. You can read the manifesto here: https://www.amherst.edu/system/files/media/DM_english_translation.pdf

Barbara Hepworth was primarily a sculptor. Here she is demonstrating how a sculptor can suggest extra dimensions on a two-dimensional surface. Along with the Dimensionists, she intuitively explored and celebrated the breakthrough concepts of Einstein’s theories of space-time and non-euclidean geometry in her work.