Dorothea Rockburne: On the Consideration of the Curve

A survey spanning over fifty years of work in which mathematics and material are inseparable, tracing the evolution of Dorothea Rockburne's distinctive practice. About Marc Selwyn Fine Art is pleased to present Dorothea Rockburne. Spanning more than fifty years, the exhibition traces the evolution of a practice in which mathematics and material are inseparable. For Rockburne, an artwork is not an illustration of a predetermined idea; its form emerges through the physical actions of folding, cutting, layering, marking, and measuring. Rockburne's distinctive approach emerged during her studies at Black Mountain College from 1950 to 1954. There, the mathematician Max Dehn introduced her to topology, geometry, and mathematical structures found in nature. These ideas became enduring foundations of her work, informing an approach to abstraction in which paper, linen, vellum, and industrial materials function as active elements rather than neutral supports. The exhibition contains a significant group of works from the late 1960s and early 1970s. In graphite-and-kraft-paper constructions such as 2, 4, 6, 8 (1969–70) and Drop/Fold (1969), Rockburne transforms ordinary materials through gravity, pressure, and repetition. The dense graphite surfaces and seams and shifts in weight carry the compositions beyond the conventions of drawing and painting. Leveling Series (1971), made with chipboard, crude oil, masonry nails, and paper, further demonstrates her radical embrace of materials more commonly associated with construction than fine art. During the 1970s, Rockburne increasingly turned to the proportional systems of Renaissance art and architecture. In works such as Golden Section Painting (1974) and Study for Noli Me Tangere (1976), geometric relationships produce compositions of striking spatial complexity. Their precise structures are animated by variations in light, texture, and shadow, creating an experience as perceptual as it is conceptual. Rockburne's encounter with Giotto's frescoes in the Arena Chapel in Padua brought a new luminosity and emotional intensity to her work. In the translucent vellum constructions Musician Angel: Parallelogram, Diamond and Musician Angel: Parallelogram, Square (both 1979–81), color and geometry appear to expand beyond the works' physical boundaries. This union of mathematical order and perceptual experience continues in Northern Sky; Southern Sky (1992) and Star Structure (2002), where the cosmos becomes both subject and organizing principle. Rockburne's work has been the subject of major presentations at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and Dia Beacon. Her work is held in numerous public collections, including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art; the Metropolitan Museum of Art; the Whitney Museum of American Art; the Brooklyn Museum; the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Read more Toggle Prints Drawing Mixed media Painting