About this artwork
A pioneering modernist working in Los Angeles from the 1920s until the early 1950s, Knud Merrild believed that avant-garde artists should challenge the boundaries of the picture plane by expanding outward. He assembled Aesthetic Function in Space out of shaped pieces of Masonite, corrugated cardboard, wood, and a small mirror, layering the forms to create a three-dimensional construction that unites elements of painting, collage, and sculpture. Described as being a “space composition” or “space painting,” this work is an early American example of a wall construction. It is also the first to be made by any California artist, noteworthy given Merrild’s distance from avant-garde art centers. When exhibited in San Francisco, local critics noted the work’s highly radical form, referring to it as “one of the most ultra of the modern paintings.”
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Status
- On View, Gallery 271
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Department
- Arts of the Americas
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Artist
- Knud Merrild
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Title
- Aesthetic Function in Space
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Place
- Los Angeles (Object made in)
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Date
- Made 1928–1933
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Medium
- Oil on Masonite and cardboard with mirror, in artist-painted frame
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Inscriptions
- Signed and dated lower right: Knud Merrild 1928-33
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Dimensions
- 78.7 × 57.8 cm (31 × 22 3/4 in.)
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Credit Line
- Gift of Dale Taylor and Angela Lustig
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Reference Number
- 2016.438
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.
