1
Portfolios%20%3D%20%221004%22%20and%20Century%20%3D%20%2220th%20Century%22%20and%20Sort_Artist%20%3D%20%22Trautmann,%20Fritz%22
Painting
The Atom
Creation of Matter
Fritz Trautmann, 1882 - 1971
Trautmann, Fritz
United States
1882 - November 11, 1971
Male
35 x 29 1/2 in. (88.9 x 74.9 cm)
.
.
.
overall
canvas
Oil
Oil
1951
1951
1951
20th century, Abstract, art with Rochester connections, color, paintings, shape
Painting
The architect and designer, Claude Bragdon, introduced his friend Fritz Trautmann to magic squares, in which arranged numbers equal the same amount in the verticals, horizontals and long diagonals. In lines that follow the numbers of a magic square in their natural order (1, 2, 3…), Trautmann observed orbital patterns replicating natural forms. On March 4, 1912 Bragdon wrote in his diary, “Trautmann [has] discovered the spiral law of space.” From this, Trautmann developed his Principal of the Orbit, a philosophical explanation for creation, evolution, and existence:
“I am borne spinning along in the great whirlpool of evolution. It is because I am a child of nature that I am able to conceive only spinning and spiraling things – whirling worlds, universes of nebulae, stars, planets, satellites; universes of molecules, atoms, electrons, protons; universes of embryos, nuclei, chromosomes, genes. By reflection I rotate; my universe turns because I myself turn…my sphere of activity assumes an orbital motion because I am the spinning center of it.”
[Gallery label text, 2010]
back of canvas, upper left
Memorial Art Gallery
1960.55
item
Memorial Art Gallery
9/8/1999
60.55DI#3
Artist's title, signature, date
digital image
Back of canvas, upper left
3/16/2010
http://127.0.0.1:5000/Media/images/Inventory pictures/60.55_I2.jpg
60.55DI#2
digital image
3/16/2010
http://127.0.0.1:5000/Media/images/60.55_A1.jpg
60.55DI1
digital image
00/00/00
http://127.0.0.1:5000/Media/images/Inventory pictures/60.55_I1.jpg
digital image
00/00/00
http://127.0.0.1:5000/Media/images/related_images/60.55_R1.tif