Geometric Abstraction.
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Hans Hofmann: The Gate, 1959–60 and Golden Rectangles.
Hans Hofmann: The Gate, 1959–60. Oil on
canvas, 75 1/8 x 48 1/2 inches
The Gate was painted in 1959–60 as part of a series of works loosely devoted to architectonic volumes. Hofmann used rectangles of color to reinforce the shape of his essentially unvarying easel-painting format. Although The Gate is subjectless, Hofmann insisted that, even in abstraction, students should always work from nature in some form. With determination, a viewer can see that the complex spatial relationship established by the floating planes of color begins to resemble the gate of the title.
Source
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
Hans Hofmann
Hans Hofmann (March 21, 1880 – February 17,
1966) was a German-born American
abstract expressionist painter.
.
According to the Hofmann biography at the Tate Gallery website, Hofmann's work is distinguished by "a rigorous concern with pictorial structure, spatial illusion, and color relationships."
The Guggenheim Collection's information on Hofmann states that his "completely abstract works date from the 1940s". Hofmann believed that abstract art was a way to get at what was really important.
Source:
Wikipedia, Hans Hofmann.
Abstract Expressionism
Abstract expressionism was an American post-World War II art movement. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve worldwide influence and put New York City at the center of the western art world, a role formerly filled by Paris.
Source:
Wikipedia, Abstract expressionism.
Golden rectangle
A golden rectangle
is a rectangle whose side lengths are in the golden ratio,
one-to-phi, that is, approximately 1:1.618. A distinctive
feature of this shape is that when a square section is
removed, the remainder is another golden rectangle, that is,
with the same proportions as the first. Square removal can
be repeated infinitely, which leads to an approximation of
the golden or Fibonacci spiral.
Droste Effect
The Droste effect is a specific kind of recursive picture, one that in heraldry is termed mise en abyme. An image exhibiting the Droste effect depicts a smaller version of itself in a place where a similar picture would realistically be expected to appear. This smaller version then depicts an even smaller version of itself in the same place, and so on. Only in theory could this go on forever; practically, it continues only as long as the resolution of the picture allows, which is relatively short, since each iteration geometrically reduces the picture's size. It is a visual example of a strange loop, a self-referential system of instancing which is the cornerstone of fractal geometry.
Source:
Wikipedia,
Droste Effect.
Geometric Abstraction
Geometric abstraction is a form of abstract art based on the use of geometric forms sometimes, though not always, placed in non-illusionistic space and combined into non-objective (non-representational) compositions.
Hans Hofmann: The Gate, 1959-60 and Golden Rectangles