The Function of Lines

Prints and Drawings

1936

Georges Vantongerloo
Belgian, 1886–1965

The reduction of form to vertical and horizontal lines and the use of only black, white, and primary colors seen in this work characterized the art and design of the early 20th-century avant-garde Dutch De Stijl group. Although primarily a sculptor, Georges Vantongerloo insisted that his two-dimensional works were equally crucial to his practice. At the time that he made The Function of Lines, he was a member of Abstraction-Création, a Paris-based, international association of artists dedicated to the principles of pure abstraction.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Prints and Drawings

Artist: Georges Vantongerloo
Title: The Function of Lines
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.: 1936
Medium: Brush with opaque and transparent watercolor and pen and black ink on beige, wove paper
Dimensions: 49.1 × 59.9 cm (19 3/8 × 23 5/8 in.)
Credit Line: Gift of Richard and Mary L. Gray
Reference Number: 2019.870

Jan Ceuleers and Georges Vantongerloo, Georges Vantongerloo, 1886–1965, exh. cat. (Snoeck-Ducaju and Zoon, 1996), p. 136 (color ill., as Fonction noir, rouge).

Paris, L’Art Mural, 1936.
Washington, D.C., Corcoran Gallery of Art, 1980; Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, 1980; and Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1980; A Traveling Retrospective Exhibition: Georges Vantongerloo, 1980–81, cat. 90 (titled Fonction de lignes).
London, Annely Juda Fine Art, Dada—Constructivism: The Janus Face of the Twenties, 1984, cat. 146 (color ill.).
London, Annely Juda Fine Art, Twenty-Five Years: Masterpieces of the Avantgarde, 1985, p. 172, cat. 47.
London, Annely Juda Fine Art and Juda Rowan Gallery, From Figuration to Abstraction, 1986, p. 111, cat. 58.
New York, Rachel Adler Gallery, Cercle et Carré: Thoughts for the 1930s, 1990, cat. 31 (ill.).
New York, Jan Krugier Gallery in collaboration with Richard L. Feigen and Co., Drawing in Space, 2007–8, cat. 40 (color ill.).
The Art Institute of Chicago, “Pure Drawing: Seven Centuries of Art from the Gray Collection”, January 25 - May 10, 2020, pp. 88-89, cat. 32, p. 144, GC 121.

Galerie Yvon Lambert, Paris, by 1980 [Washington D.C. 1980 exh. cat]. The Elkon Gallery, New York. Alain Tarica, Paris. Annely Juda Fine Art, London, by 1984 [London 1984 exh. cat.]; sold to Edward Hirschland (born 1948), Chicago, May 1987; sold Christie’s, New York, May 10, 2007, lot 175, to Jan Krugier (1928–2008), Geneva; sold, Christie’s, New York, Nov. 5, 2013, lot 185, to the Gray Collection Trust, Chicago; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 2019.

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