Today I visited The Everson Museum of Art (401 Harrison Street, Syracuse, New York 13202) for the Steffi Chappell-led art talk. It was a Lesson in Geometry.
As Director of Curatorial Affairs, Chappell curated this exhibition from the Everson archives. Currently, the museum’s finest collection of non-representational paintings and sculptures are housed in two of the upstairs galleries. Works from Sol Lewitt, Susan Roth, and many other American artists are on view through March 29, 2026. Some of the pieces are recent acquisitions.
When discussing geometric forms, we are talking about measured shapes. Drawing a circle free-hand is not geometry. These pieces utilized rulers, protractors, right triangles and compasses. Many were conceptualized to appear machine made with very smooth brushstrokes and precise edges (I mean – you can totally tell those artists used masking tape in order to eradicate the humanity – so that was a bit of an unsuccessful desire).
Steffi Chappell spoke of the historical significance of the abstract art movement in the United States specifically, and how it sort of separated into factions with Abstract Expressionism dominating after World War II. Geometric Abstraction sprouted from a need to break free of emotional trappings.
Even though many of these pieces were created when I was a child (kind of a long time ago), it was refreshing in that Star Trekkian way to do away with all the emotion and volatility of social justice art, mental illness art, low frequency vibes and the like, at least for the afternoon. This work, in essence, is art for art’s sake. It is about using the elements of art to establish the principles of art in a structured instead of intuitive way.
The result: the viewer responds to color, rhythm, line quality, etc. and appreciates its boldness in size or serenity in shape. Many artists experimented with canvas shape, new materials, and/or optical illusion.
It’s the kind of abstract art that kids will hesitate to say – I could do that – because the underlying geometric structures and measuring techniques were clearly time consuming, lol.
Artists have obsessed over the relationship between mathematics and art for millennia. As artists turned toward abstraction in the early twentieth century, Europeans like Piet Mondrian used geometry to create a set of rules and parameters that guided their creative process. Meanwhile, American artists began developing their own styles and movements—particularly Abstract Expressionism, which was typified by bold, quickly executed brushwork, drips, and splashes. In the mid-twentieth century in the United States, artists laid the groundwork for Geometric Abstraction as a more cerebral alternative to the often macho flamboyance of Abstract Expressionism. Over the ensuing decades, artists used geometry to produce abstract works that ranged from the dazzling Op Art of Victor Vasarely to the restrained Minimalism of Sol LeWitt.
Lessons in Geometry traces the evolution of hard-edged abstraction in the United States as artists sought to use pure geometric forms to create works with balance, harmony, and order. For these artists, shape, line, and color took precedence over representational compositions. The Everson’s collection reflects the wildly varied ways that artists have used geometry to serve their personal expression, from the analytical formulations of Robert Swain to the shaped canvases of Harmony Hammond and the spatial illusions of Tony King.
