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Exhibitions%20%3D%20%22531%22%20and%20Disp_Obj_Type%20%3D%20%22Watercolor%22
Watercolor
Mathematical Abstraction No. 5 "Study in complementaries"
Projective Ornament
Claude Fayette Bragdon, 1866 - 1946
Bragdon, Claude Fayette
United States
1866 - 1946
Male
28 3/8 x 20 5/16 in. (72.1 x 51.6 cm)
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image
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sheet
Watercolor
Watercolor
ca. 1939-1941
1939
1941
1900-2000, 20th century, by Rochester artists, polyhedron, pyramid, watercolors
Watercolor
Bragdon’s Mathematical Abstractions is a set of images based on mathematical relationships and suggestive of cosmic forms in the solar system. This series grew out of Bragdon’s continued interest in uniting color, form, and music.
The series was exhibited in 1941-42 in Hartford, New York City, and finally in Rochester at the Memorial Art Gallery, where Bragdon’s patrons, Dr. and Mrs. James Sibley Watson, agreed to purchase this one for MAG. Bragdon wrote about the gift to Isabel Herdle, MAG curator, in 1944: “It is the one which your sister [Gertrude Herdle Moore, MAG director] and Fritz [Trautmann] decided would be best and which was also settled upon by Mrs. Watson and myself.”
The Mathematical Abstraction series was best described by the artist in the 1941-42 exhibition brochure:
"These fifteen water-color paintings represent the final distillation of Mr. Bragdon’s creative ability in a field which he has made his own. Although susceptible of classification as non-representational, or non-objective art, they are unique by reason of the fact that Mr. Bragdon is a skilled mathematician and geometer as well as an artist. He does not wish these paintings to be viewed, however, from any other standpoint than that of their intrinsic beauty—their purely aesthetic appeal. He believes that mathematical truth is at the root of all beauty, and that in the same sense that music may be said to be the beauty of mathematics made audible, so are these paintings mathematics made visible. After having made many hundred drawings, Mr. Bragdon made the paintings here and now exhibited, which from one point of view might be regarded as so many 'stills' of color symphonies seen by the author 'in his mind’s eye.'
One of the pioneers in the new art of Color Music, Mr. Bragdon has from far back employed his spare time and his spare money in the construction of one “color-organ” after another, in which it was his idea to add luminosity, color, rhythm, mobility, to his designs derived from mathematical sources. Convinced, after many failures, that the most satisfactory way in which this might be accomplished was by the animated cartoon technique, he made a study of it with this in view, and tried to interest the moving picture people in his idea. None of them were prepared, however, to invest the necessary amount of money in what they regarded as an uncertain venture. Walt Disney, meantime, a free agent, with the means at his disposal, had gone ahead and in certain parts of “Fantasia”—notably in the “sound-track” sequence—approximated some of the color-music effects which Mr. Bragdon had had in mind."
Excerpt from Mathematical Abstractions exhibition brochure, 1941-42
[Gallery label text, 2010]
lower right
1944.6
item
Memorial Art Gallery
9/8/1999
44.6SL1
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full
2 x 2
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44.6DI1
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2 x 2
7/23/2002
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44.6DI#2
digital image
7/10/2008
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44.6DI#3
digital image
6/22/2010
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Watercolor
Three Master
John Marin, 1870 - 1953
Marin, John
United States
1870 - 1953
Male
21 7/8 x 26 3/8 in. (55.5 x 67 cm)
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overall
mount
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overall
sheet
Watercolor
Watercolor
1923
1923
1923
1900-2000, 20th century, boats, watercolors
Watercolor
lower right, Written in charcoal and then painted over in watercolor.
1925.32
item
Memorial Art Gallery
9/8/1999
25.32TR1
Transparency
Memorial Art Gallery
4 x 5
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prints
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25.32DI1
digital image
Memorial Art Gallery
Imaging complete
7/13/2000
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digital image
00/00/00
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25.32DI#2
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8/30/2012
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Watercolor
Cardinal
Pavel Tchelitchew, (Dubrovka, Russia, 1898 - 1957, Grottaferrata, Italy)
Tchelitchew, Pavel
Russia
1898 - 1957
Male
20 1/16 x 13 11/16 in. (51 x 34.8 cm)
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sheet
sheet
Watercolor
Watercolor
1921
1921
1921
Watercolor
Created for a theatrical production called "Savonarola," based on a book by Gobineau, presented in Berlin in 1922.
1981.33
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Memorial Art Gallery
3/10/2001
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8 x 10
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00/00/00
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81.33DI#2
digital image
1/8/2020
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