Blast from the Past: 60s and 70s Geometric Abstraction, now on exhibit in the Annenberg Wing at the Palm Springs Art Museum through December 23, is a vivid, powerful collection of geometric abstract paintings, sculpture and prints from the 1960s and 70s, a period known for its purity of style.
Some 100 artworks represent a variety of ideas in optical art (Op Art), kinetic art, minimalism, hard-edge and color field. Many of the works have rarely been or are on view for the first time in this impressive exhibit.
Purely abstract forms – square, rectangle, triangle, circle and geometric volumes such as the cube and cone — suggest architecture and geometry, while the artists’ use of primary colors, lines and compositional devices present a sensual experience, illustrating alternative ideas about art and principles of reality.
Op Art, a trend that uses optical illusions to simulate motion and other perceptual shifts, is seen in the experiments of Victor Vasarely, Carlos Cruz-Diez and Yascov Agam. Bright primary colors finely interspersed with complementary hues, creates visual interactions between the colors that seem to give off light and vibrations.
In Jesus Rafael Soto’s classic work, the sensation of constant flux transforms color, space, line into a new perceptual experience. Continue reading “Palm Springs Art Museum Exhibits Capture Mid Century Art, Life”
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Palm Springs is synonymous with Mid Century Modern architecture, an era that emerged in the post-war 1950s through the 1970s. A revival of modernism gained momentum in Southern California and has grown around the world for more than a decade.
