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Interrelation of Volumes from the Ellipsoid

White sculpture of various sized rectangles stacked and interlocked with one another.
© 2008 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ProLitteris, Zurich

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  • White sculpture of various sized rectangles stacked and interlocked with one another.

Date:

1926

Artist:

Georges Vantongerloo
Belgian, 1886–1965

About this artwork

Near the end of World War I, Georges Vantongerloo felt the need to break with the past. He came in contact with a group of artists, including Theo van Doesburg and Piet Mondrian, who saw abstraction as an almost spiritual vehicle for the reconstruction of art and society. Their approach, known as De Stijl (The Style), was marked by fundamentals: geometry combined with asymmetry; pure primary colors with black and white; and positive and negative elements. Motivated by his belief in this utopian aesthetic, Vantongerloo joined the De Stijl group in 1917, its founding year.

In 1919 he embarked on a series of sculptures based on the interrelation of masses. Interrelation of Volumes from the Ellipsoid, the fifth in the group, explores the intersections of a parallel-faced polyhedron within an ovoid volume. To produce this work, the artist mapped the intersecting volumes of forms from different views in order to reveal core geometric units and planes. While this sculpture was inspired by mathematical principles, it is not a sterile, scientific object but, in its realized form, suggests an element of human invention in the mold marks and alterations that Vantongerloo considered part of the artistic process.

Status

On View, Gallery 393

Department

Modern Art

Artist

Georges Vantongerloo

Title

Interrelation of Volumes from the Ellipsoid

Place

Belgium (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

1926

Medium

Plaster

Inscriptions

Signed, l.l. with artist's monogram: GV

Dimensions

40 × 47 × 26 cm (15 3/4 × 18 1/2 × 10 1/4 in.)

Credit Line

Through prior gift of Lucille E. and Joseph L. Block; partial gift in memory of Lillian Florsheim

Reference Number

2004.245

Copyright

© 2008 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ProLitteris, Zurich

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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