Agnes Denes: Fragmentations

This exhibition highlights Fragmentations, a series of etchings created by conceptual artist Agnes Denes. Born in Budapest in 1931, raised in Sweden, and later educated in the United States, she began displaying her work in the early 1960s. Her artwork discussed the socio-political climate of the time and paved the way for future artists and generations to express themselves in new aesthetic forms. Rooted in geometry and patterns, the print series showcases a view of the world through a universal language of numbers. The artist explains that “fragmentations and distortions [are used] to see things from a multitude of perspectives, in space as well as in concepts, yet even then, the images are ‘perfect’ because they are based on mathematics.” For her, these etchings witness “the birth of form” through principles of design that have built the world around us. The equations through which the shapes are created then turn into structures we perceive as spheres, pyramids, and spirals. While the outlines produced in these works are known and recognizable, Denes believes that other patterns “still unknown hold the key to unresolved enigmas and paradoxes” and will lead to a wider understanding of the world.  

 

IMAGE:  

Agnes Denes, Untitled from Fragmentations, 1998, etching on paper. Collection of the UK Art Museum, gift of Werner H. Kramarsky.