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Fernand Léger, Leaves and Shell  1927

Léger’s paintings often celebrate machine-made objects and modern city life. But in the late 1920s he began to include natural forms in his work. The curving line down the left-hand side of the painting softens the underlying geometric structure of horizontal and vertical lines. It also acts as a link to the organic shapes of leaves and a shell. These naturalistic elements, with their streamlined shapes, are closely connected to the abstract parts of the image.

Gallery label, August 2019

Ben Nicholson OM, Feb 2-54  1954

This painting is typical of Nicholson's still lifes of the early fifties with its overlapping forms, often transparent, but given body by accents of colour or pencil shading. The construction of these paintings is a development from his works of the mid-thirties in which Nicholson allowed the forms of earlier paintings to penetrate later reworkings. The surface has been rubbed down repeatedly and, in common with many other such works of the period, is smooth. The colour is applied both relatively freely in thin washes and precisely and opaquely. Nicholson received the Ulisse Award at the Venice Biennale later in 1954.

Gallery label, August 2004

Kazimir Malevich, Dynamic Suprematism  1915 or 1916

Malevich’s abstract paintings belong to the intense period of artistic experimentation that developed in a turbulent period of the First World War and the Bolshevik Revolution. In 1915 Malevich abandoned figurative forms in favour of a purely creative experience of geometric abstraction. His first such work was a statement, as he painted a black square on a white canvas, marking a crucial moment for development of painting. Dynamic Suprematism belongs to a group of works he developed using clear geometric forms activated in space against a white background.

Gallery label, March 2022

Naum Gabo, Linear Construction No. 2 &²Ô²ú²õ±è;1970–1

'Linear Construction No.2' exists in over twenty versions, both standing and hanging. The light-catching nylon filament is wound around two intersecting plastic planes. The stringing gives a delicate sense of three dimensions in the complicated patterns created by the irregular lobe shapes of the transparent plastic. It was developed from Gabo's unrealised project for the lobby of the Esso Building in New York in the late 1940s. Two sculptures similar to 'Linear Construction No.2' were designed to be located on top of the two revolving lobby doors, turning slowly. It was one of Gabo's favourite works and was presented to the Tate in memory of the art historian Herbert Read.

Gallery label, August 2004

György Kepes, Blobs and Circles &²Ô²ú²õ±è;³¦.1939–40

This is one of a large group of photograms and studies in modernist photography in °Õ²¹³Ù±ð’s collection by the Hungarian-born photographer, painter, designer, teacher and writer, Gyorgy Kepes (see Tate P80532–P80568, T13973–T13975). They date from 1938 to the early 1940s and were made in the United States, where Kepes had emigrated in 1937. Kepes made his earliest photograms in Budapest, taking nature as his starting point, directly recording the process without a camera onto photosensitized surfaces. In the late 1920s Kepes joined the Berlin studio of the Hungarian artist and modernist photographer László Moholy-Nagy (1895–1946). Moholy-Nagy had been a teacher at the Bauhaus School in Germany and was one of the principals in promoting the values of the Bauhaus movement, as well as a pioneer who experimented with a multitude of materials and techniques. Kepes was introduced to the ‘new vision’ provided by the possibilities of modern art techniques while collaborating alongside Moholy-Nagy. He began to experiment with photograms himself – photographic prints made in the darkroom by placing objects directly onto light sensitive paper and exposing the paper to light. Later, he made prints he called ‘photo-drawings’, in which he applied paint to a glass plate that he then used as though it were a negative. Only a few of Kepes’s works from this earlier period survived the artist’s many moves in the 1930s and the Second World War.

György Kepes, Compass and Strainer Photogram  n.d

This is one of a large group of photograms and studies in modernist photography in °Õ²¹³Ù±ð’s collection by the Hungarian-born photographer, painter, designer, teacher and writer, Gyorgy Kepes (see Tate P80532–P80568, T13973–T13975). They date from 1938 to the early 1940s and were made in the United States, where Kepes had emigrated in 1937. Kepes made his earliest photograms in Budapest, taking nature as his starting point, directly recording the process without a camera onto photosensitized surfaces. In the late 1920s Kepes joined the Berlin studio of the Hungarian artist and modernist photographer László Moholy-Nagy (1895–1946). Moholy-Nagy had been a teacher at the Bauhaus School in Germany and was one of the principals in promoting the values of the Bauhaus movement, as well as a pioneer who experimented with a multitude of materials and techniques. Kepes was introduced to the ‘new vision’ provided by the possibilities of modern art techniques while collaborating alongside Moholy-Nagy. He began to experiment with photograms himself – photographic prints made in the darkroom by placing objects directly onto light sensitive paper and exposing the paper to light. Later, he made prints he called ‘photo-drawings’, in which he applied paint to a glass plate that he then used as though it were a negative. Only a few of Kepes’s works from this earlier period survived the artist’s many moves in the 1930s and the Second World War.

Lygia Pape, Weaving  1957

Here Lygia Pape creates a complex composition out of simple rectangles and triangles. The title refers to the act of weaving, and thus to textiles, a reference that implies the transparency of woven fabric, as well as its regularity and precision. Each shape is made with a woodcut printed onto thin paper, with the grooves of the natural woodgrain of the printing block visible. This organic element, along with the overlapping of the shapes, deliberately disturbs the pure geometry of the work.

Gallery label, November 2015

Lucio Fontana, Spatial Concept ‘Waiting’  1960

In 1959, Fontana began to cut the canvas, with dramatic perfection. These cuts (or tagli) were carefully pre-meditated but executed in an instant. Like the holes in some of his other canvases, they have the effect of drawing the viewer into space. In some, however, the punctures erupt from the surface carrying the force of the gesture towards the viewer in a way that is at once energetic and threatening. Although these actions have often been seen as violent, Fontana claimed ‘I have constructed, not destroyed.’

Gallery label, April 2009

Saloua Raouda Choucair, Composition with Two Ovals  1951

Choucair is one of the few Lebanese artists of her generation devoted to geometric abstraction. Her approach developed in response to two distinct influences: Islamic art and the avant-garde art scene of Paris in the 1940s, where she was a student. Like many of her paintings, it uses the two basic elements of Islamic design – the straight line and the curve – as a starting point to create simple shapes which she places in rhythmic dialogue.

Gallery label, November 2015

Zilia Sánchez, The Amazons  1968

In this painting abstract female bodies and geometric shapes emerge from the stretched canvas. The interlocked forms suggest an intense physical connection. Sánchez’s works are often described as ‘erotic topologies’ due to her distinctly shaped wooden frames. The title references the Amazons, legendary women warriors and hunters from ancient Greek mythology known for their fierce independence. Sánchez first started painting abstract works while living in Havana, Cuba, and exhibited in the 5th São Paulo Biennial in 1959.

Gallery label, February 2025

Hélio Oiticica, B17 Glass Bólide 05 ‘Homage to Mondrian’  1965

Hélio Oiticica was interested in the physical properties and structure of colour. His Glass Bólides (fireballs) consist of large glass jars or containers. Oiticica dissolved colour pigment in water. He also applied it to coarse fabric. This work is dedicated to the Dutch abstract artist Piet Mondrian (1872–1944). Mondrian’s use of reduced colours and shapes was an influence on Oiticica, who at the time also experimented with wearable garments. Oiticica was one of several Brazilian artists who exhibited at Signals gallery.

Gallery label, May 2023

Georges Vantongerloo, No. 98 2478 Red/135 Green  1936

Vantongerloo was one of the pioneers of a mathematical approach to abstract art. The first number in the title,’No.98’, is the figure Vantongerloo gave the work in his own catalogue. The rest of the numbers represent units of space in the painting. The basic unit (1) is the white rectangle and green stripe on the left of the bottom row. The second and third spaces along are each equivalent to two of these rectangles. Adding these numbers (1, 2, 2) cumulatively results in 1, 3 (1 2), 5 (3 2) for the green stripe section. The red row works on the same principle to give 2,4,7,8.

Gallery label, June 2021

Carmelo Arden Quin, Carres  1951

Piet Mondrian, Composition C (No.III) with Red, Yellow and Blue  1935

Mondrian used a simple visual language in his work. This composition is a clear example of his technique. It consists of horizontal and vertical lines in black, with planes of white. It also features the three primary colours, from which all other colours are made by mixing. Through the structure and order of the elements, Mondrian was suggesting an idealised view of society. Each individual element contributes to the overall composition of the work. This was intended to symbolise the relationship between the individual and the collective.

Gallery label, June 2021

Hedda Sterne, NY, NY No. X  1948

NY, NY No. X is a prime example of Sterne’s works from the late 1940s. As the title suggests, her subject was the bridges and the elevated railways of New York City, which she abstracted into a mass of lines and planes. After arriving from war-torn Europe in 1941, Sterne became associated with the emerging generation of American painters. She was famously the only woman – alongside Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and others – in Nina Leen’s 1951 Life magazine photograph of ‘The Irascibles’, abstract artists objecting to the conservatism of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Gallery label, October 2016

Lucia Moholy, Bauhaus Building, Dessau, view from the vestibule window looking toward the workshop wing  1926

Lucia Moholy moved to Dessau to accompany her husband László Moholy-Nagy (1895–1946) when he began teaching at the Bauhaus school of art, architecture and design. There she produced many iconic photographs documenting the architecture of the Bauhaus buildings in the mid-1920s.

Gallery label, November 2015

Rubem Valentim, Emblem 70 No.2  1970

Nelson Leirner, Homage to Fontana II  1967

Homage to Fontana II is a playful tribute to Italian artist Lucio Fontana, who punctured or sliced canvases to create a new space beyond the surface of the painting. Leirner’s work replaces the cuts with zippers, revealing panels of differently coloured fabric. Originally, Leirner invited viewers to make their own reversible ‘cuts’ in the fabric by zipping and unzipping the panels. He planned to produce multiple versions of his Homage to Fontana works, to be sold at a very low cost. Leirner first exhibited at the 7th São Paulo Biennial in 1963. In 1969, he was one of several artists who boycotted the 10th Biennial to protest against the repressive actions of Brazil’s military dictatorship.

Gallery label, March 2022

Dame Barbara Hepworth, Figure (Nyanga) &²Ô²ú²õ±è;1959–60

Hepworth said that when she was carving this sculpture she was preoccupied with ‘thoughts about Africa and the United Nations’, explaining that her concern for human suffering and dignity had on occasion lent a certain poignancy to her works. It was linked more specifically to her sense of sorrow after the 1960 Sharpeville Massacre, when South African police opened fire on demonstrators, killing 69 people. The sculpture appears to represent a human head, heroic in stature and proportion, and emblematic of the universality of suffering.

Gallery label, November 2015

Olle Baertling, Ardek  1963

Lucia Moholy, Bauhaus Building, Dessau &²Ô²ú²õ±è;1925–6

Lucia Moholy moved to Dessau to accompany her husband László Moholy-Nagy (1895–1946) when he began teaching at the Bauhaus school of art, architecture and design. There she produced many iconic photographs documenting the architecture of the Bauhaus buildings in the mid-1920s.

Gallery label, November 2015

Antoine Pevsner, Maquette of a Monument Symbolising the Liberation of the Spirit  1952

This is a model for a much larger work, Pevsner’s submission for an international sculpture competition. ‘The Unknown Political Prisoner’ was a monument commission organised by London’s Institute of Contemporary Arts in 1952. Pevsner constructed the intricate organic form entirely from straight elements. He sought to create an abstract monument with an architectural presence and geometric design that could be seen in its entirety from any direction. The repeated lines are ‘a symbol of imprisonment. The motive floating in the abyss of the sphere emphasises the image of captivity; it becomes materialised in the shape of a cell.’

Gallery label, March 2022