Designer and artist Max Bill’s interest in the “pure expression of harmonious measure and law” is seen in this square tessellation, in which each of the four colors is given an egalitarian allotment of space and each of the three triangles is repeated four times. Bill was a leading figure in Concrete art. As opposed to forms of abstract art that distort, exaggerate, or simplify from forms in the natural world, the forms of Concrete art originate solely in the mind of the artist. The pulsating color relationships exhibited among the interlocking triangles in Four Equal Colors recall the ideas of one of Bill’s early teachers at Bauhaus, Johannes Itten, who maintained that “form and color are one” and championed geometric shapes and spectrum colors for their simplicity and precision. The principles of Concrete art also played an important role in the development of Op Art, seen elsewhere in this exhibition.
–When We Were Young: Rethinking Abstraction From The University At Albany Art Collections (1967-Present)