Donald Judd, Untitled, 1991. Modern & Contemporary Editions: Evening Sale, London.
— by Hebe Reynolds
How do you measure space? Or time, for that matter? I chose a career in the arts to steer well clear of anything mathematical (or philosophical). While there’s a lot of gray area in where one plane starts and another dimension ends, there is no doubt these artists have pushed the metaphysical boundaries of what Editions — and art — can be. Pioneers of critical thought and movements such as Op Art, Minimalism, and Conceptualism, these works are untethered from traditional frameworks of painting and sculpture, and challenge our preconceived notions of how space, time, and physical boundaries interact with reality. Using geometric precision to reinvent optical and physical convention, the works in our Modern and Contemporary Editions: Evening and Online auctions prove that maths doesn’t just have to be logical. As a wise auction specialist once said, if art is the apple upon Newton’s head, then these calculated artists have much food for thought.
Donald Judd
Anodized in a turquoise sheen, Donald Judd’s rectilinear grid dances between structural solidity and void space. Judd used his work to interrogate “real space” — in other words, three-dimensional — and challenge conventional ideas of what art should look like. Untitled creates a dialogue between positive and negative space, a concept that underpins much of Judd’s practice. By enlisting the help of Swiss factory workers and industrial tools to manufacture the work by shaping the portcullis-like form found in the cross-section of the body, Judd fundamentally removes hands-on art making traditionally associated with sculpture. This shift would hold great importance to the then-rising generation of Conceptual artists, who held that ideas themselves, exempt from any materialization, can exist as art. Untitled stands as a testament to Judd’s experimental exploration of industrial materials, leveraging their anonymity and malleability to create a distinctive body of work.
I had always considered my work another activity of some kind…. I certainly didn’t think I was making sculpture.
—Donald Judd
Bridget Riley
Bridget Riley, Untitled (La lune en rodage — Carlo Belloli), 1965. Modern & Contemporary Editions: Evening Sale, London.
Top of the Op charts is Bridget Riley’s lyrical Untitled (La lune en rodage — Carlo Belloli). Sinuous lines of varying thickness bend and warp before our eyes, the horizontal bands creating flux and rhythm within the pictorial field. A deceptively complex work, Riley’s rigorous placement of lines is not arbitrary. Instead, the alternating thickness and close proximity of the black bands are exact and meticulously thought out. This linear flow creates the illusion of movement, which in turn plays tricks on the eye. Riley strips the work of color to harness the full potential of the energy and vibrations between the opposing tones. Despite never studying optics (as she has persistently reiterated), Riley’s monochromatic works of the 1960s set an unmatched precedent for art engaging with ocular manipulation, laying the foundation for later works.
Anish Kapoor
Anish Kapoor, Horizon Shadow, 2010. Modern & Contemporary Editions: Evening Sale, London.
Science was always my least favorite subject, but Anish Kapoor has thrown the laws of physics completely out the window. Horizon Shadow quite literally creates nine new horizons that turn the laws of perspective on their head. The concept of the “void” has fascinated Kapoor since the 1980s, intrigued by its ability to question logical concepts of space. Through a mirage of mutable surfaces, Kapoor invites us to reckon with the instability of our own bodies and movements, working with a kaleidoscope of saturated colors that echo the intense pigments used in his eminent sculptural works. Unlike Kapoor’s three-dimensional works, however, Horizon Shadow is neither explicitly concave nor convex, yet still produces a mesmerizing visual experience through meticulously gradated tones and vibrant hues. Between shades of burnt umber, violet, and chartreuse, Kapoor interrogates the materiality of pigment and devises new dimensions from a seemingly flat picture plane.
Frank Stella
Frank Stella, Bonne Bay, from Newfoundland Series, 1971. Modern & Contemporary Editions: Evening Sale, London.
Some people are polymaths; others, like Frank Stella, find their calling through quatrefoils and flower vectors. Created in 1971 and incorporating vibrant arcs and soft, semicircular shapes of his seminal Protractor Series, the curves of Bonne Bay break and reform in successive bands of color. Although Stella never fully aligned with the precision and conceptualism of Minimalism, he departed from its inexpressive, nihilistic interrogations of the nature of painting. Instead, he uses vivid arcs and rectilinear forms that interlock across the surface, creating a composition that feels both structurally rigorous and quietly meditative. Concentric rainbows replace the static seriousness of his stripes, anticipating what would be called his “baroque” multicolored relief works of the following decades. As the artist himself observed, Stella’s work deals in “technical, spatial, and painterly ambiguities,” which transforms simple visual stimuli into a deeper meditation on perception and reality.
Carlos Cruz-Diez
Carlos Cruz-Diez, I.C.A.D.F. (Induction chromatique à double fréquence) (Dual-frequency chromatic induction), 1998. Modern & Contemporary Editions: Online Auction.
Have you ever stared at an image for so long that it seems to leave an imprint on your retina? This is exactly the sensation that Carlos Cruz-Diez’s I.C.A.D.F. (Induction chromatique à double fréquence) series seeks to evoke. The artist explores the phenomenon of “after image” (also known as retinal persistence), which generates a fleeting experience of a hazy, complementary colour floating around your gaze. This fuzzy sensation we get when looking at I.C.A.D.F. is a result of the artist’s precise pairing of adjacent colors. The layering of vertical bands plays optical tricks on our eyes; it stabilizes and makes visible a phenomenon that can be captured only momentarily under specific circumstances. In this way, the space between the spectator and the picture plane becomes active, prompting a visceral reaction in viewers.
Josef Albers
Left: Josef Albers, I-S b, 1968. Modern & Contemporary Editions: Online Auction. Right: Josef Albers, WLS X, from White Line Squares Series II, 1966. Modern & Contemporary Editions: Online Auction.
A pioneering theorist of color theory and perception, Josef Albers strips away traditional representation to engage purely with the fundamentals of shape and color. I-S b and WLS X use color, position, and format of three different squares to investigate spatial ambivalence. Through these two series that layer various vibrant squares on top of each other, Albers examines color relativity, demonstrating that hues are not isolated but can be altered by their surroundings. From Mondrian to Malevich, the square has been interrogated, stripped, reformed, and appropriated. Albers adds to this lineage by subverting mechanical centering, resulting in a composition that establishes gravitational tension and resists static form. For Albers, something as simple as a four-sided shape can actively challenge human perception, transforming a static object into a vivid sensorial experience. This, my friends, is why perspective matters.