Seeing and Thinking Outside the Box

1 squared, 2010. Arthur L. Carter (b.1931). Stainless steel, 36" x 36".

The New Britain Museum of American Art is pleased to host the exhibition of sculptural paintings by the artist Arthur L. Carter on view from September 30th to November 27th in the Davis Gallery. The title of the show, Orthogonals, refers to the property in mathematics – orthogonality – in which two vectors are perpendicular. A wonderful blend of art and mathematics, the rectangles, squares, triangles, and lines in Carter’s wall reliefs coexist and intersect in surprising ways to create an atmosphere that is both musical and harmonious.

Trained as a classical pianist, Carter produces art that can be described as a symphony of diverse and contrasting elements. Though an accomplished sculptor, he did not commit to the craft until 1990, having previously earned a living as a successful investment banker, entrepreneur, and publisher for a number of newspapers such as The Nation and The New York Observer. His propensity for order, which is evident in his business ventures (he has owned and operated more than a hundred industrial companies) and interest in graphic design during his publishing days, eventually manifested itself into a form of sculpture. Carter’s decision to adopt sculpture as his medium was inspired by a long standing interest in geometry and the organization of space and structure – elements he dealt with constantly as a newspaper publisher.

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New Media & Fractal Art

TV Cello, 1971. Nam June Paik (1932-2006). Video tubes, TV chassis, plexiglass boxes, electronics, wiring, wood base, fan, stool, photograph. Permanent Collection, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis.

A broad term that emerged in the 1960s and exploded onto the art scene in the 1980s, New Media ecompasses the fusion of traditional media such as film, images, painting, sculpture, music, and the written and spoken word with the interactive power of computer and communications technology, computer-enabled consumer devices, and the Internet. This new category of art includes digital art, animation, interactive and installation art, and computer graphics, among others. New media artists such as Nam June Paik (1932-2006) and Wolf Vostell (1932-1998) first experimented with video and sound art in the 1960s and many artists have since followed in their footsteps with further experimentation. A key concept of New Media is that the artworks produced are available to anyone at any time through the Internet and other digital frameworks. This digitization creates a universal forum for artists to share ideas with each other, and communicate with viewers directly.

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Image Within an Image: Escher and the Droste Effect

Print Gallery, 1956. M.C. Escher. (1898-1972) Lithograph, 31.9 x 31.9 cm. Herakleidon Museum, Athens, Greece. All M.C. Escher works (c) The M.C. Escher Company B.V. – Baarn – the NETHERLANDS

Where have you seen the most famous M. C. Escher prints?  Many, such as Relativity and Reptiles, show up on math and science textbooks and are used in school lectures.  However, most are surprised to know that Escher had no formal training in mathematics. 

Escher only received a high school education in mathematics and after graduating he enrolled in architecture school.  A week into his education, one of his teachers who happened to be the successful graphic artist Jessurun de Mesquita was impressed by a few of Escher’s lithocuts.  He asked Escher, “Wouldn’t you like to be a graphic artist instead of an architect?”  Considering that Escher did not particularly like architecture as a career choice, he agreed to study graphic design and never took another math course.

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