1
Portfolios%3D%22506%22%20and%20Sort_Artist%3D%22Bragdon,%20Claude%20Fayette%22%20and%20Disp_Obj_Type%3D%22Decorative%20Arts%22
Decorative Arts
Shield for Song and Light Festival
Design for Stained Glass Medallion
Claude Fayette Bragdon, 1866 - 1946
Bragdon, Claude Fayette
United States
1866 - 1946
Male
13 3/8 x 13 3/8 in. (34 x 34 cm)
.
.
.
Watercolor
Watercolor
ca. 1915
1910
1920
by Rochester artists, watercolors
Decorative Arts
Like philosophers and artists before him, Claude Bragdon sought a sacred geometry of cosmic significance and harmonious design. In his 1915 book Projective Ornament he outlined a modern, universal system of design based on numbers and geometry abstracted from nature. Bragdon’s beliefs in Theosophy influenced his use of the fourth dimension in creating his ornament. He believed in the fourth dimension as a mystical hyperspace that explained some of the mysteries of life and the afterlife. Bragdon based his new ornamental style on a complex system of projecting and manipulating two-dimensional shapes such as squares and triangles into four-dimensional shapes such as tesseracts and pentahedroids.
In September of 1915, Claude Bragdon helped organize the Song and Light Festival, a community-building public singing event held in Highland Park. As Master of Light, Bragdon used projective ornament to design colorful circular glass shields and Japanese-style lanterns that he artfully arranged around the stage. Lit by electricity, Bragdon’s projective ornament designs created an otherworldly outdoor environment likened to a “cathedral without walls.”
Bragdon was intensely absorbed and inspired by this new endeavor in which he could aid progressive social reform using his passion for color, light, drama and modern ornament. The popularity of the Rochester festival soon spread to other cities in the northeast, and Bragdon was involved in staging Song and Light Festivals through 1918.
[Gallery label text, 2010]
1956.91
item
Memorial Art Gallery
9/8/1999
56.91DI#1
digital image
Front
6/21/2007
http://127.0.0.1:5000/Media/images/56.91_A1.jpg
56.91DI#2
digital image
7/10/2008
http://127.0.0.1:5000/Media/images/56.91_A2.jpg