Georges Vantongerloo
Belgian, 1886–1965
The Function of Lines
INV-2449
Georges Vantongerloo
Belgian, 1886–19651936
The Function of Lines
Georges Vantongerloo Belgian, 1886–1965 →drawings (visual works)gouache
Date
1936
Medium
Brush with opaque and transparent watercolor and pen and black ink on beige, wove paper
Dimensions
49.1 × 59.9 cm (19 3/8 × 23 5/8 in.)
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Location
Chicago, IL
Credit
Gift of Richard and Mary L. Gray
The reduction of form to vertical and horizontal lines and the use of only black, white, and primary colors seen in this work characterized the art and design of the early 20th-century avant-garde Dutch De Stijl group. Although primarily a sculptor, Georges Vantongerloo insisted that his two-dimensional works were equally crucial to his practice. At the time that he made The Function of Lines, he was a member of Abstraction-Création, a Paris-based, international association of artists dedicated to the principles of pure abstraction.
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