Perception
A grid design with its repeated series of intersecting horizontal and vertical lines has been used as a principal structure in the works of numerous artists. Canadian born American painter, Agnes Martin (1912 – 2004) changed the scale and proportion of the grid to create abstract paintings. For Martin, the design represented themes of innocence and humility.1 Dutch painter Piet Mondrian (1872–1944) used the grid to emphasize the flatness of the picture plane and to experiment with various configurations.2 Through my research into the symbolic and technical uses of this frequently utilized pattern, I discovered that from a viewer’s perspective grids operate as filters through which images can be interpreted. This installation presents tangible frameworks that symbolically illustrate the intellectual and emotional grids we each carry and that contribute towards an exploratory dialogue in the way we look at art.
1 2Grids,’ Guggenheim: Agnes Martin Exhibition (October 7, 2016–January 11, 2017), accessed March 26, 2019, https://www.guggenheim.org/arts-curriculum/topic/grids