Name: Black Square 70
Brand: Neil Harrison
Rating: 5 (6 reviews)

Black Square 70

View Similar Items

Karl Bielik - Medication (Abstract painting)

Stuart Bigley - Still Life with Plants and Abstraction

Anastassia Skopp - Garden Flowers V - small floral original artwork with impressionistic red roses

Nicholas Evans - “So Plant, So Animal” (Graphic, Bold, Abstract, Neutral, Framed, Linen Painting)

Carolina Ponte - Carolina Ponte - No Title (Large Scale Abstract Painting)

Barry Goldberg - Beat Seats: geometric abstract painting; red, black, white circles on light blue

Gail Chase-Bien - Bride Catcher

Jason DeMeo - Fruity Ramen: Truth Beauty, Goodness Banner - Bold Meditative Gold Leaf Original

Jason DeMeo - Concrete Sky I - Bold Meditative Gold Leaf Red Painting on Linen Canvas

MIng Wang - Chinese American Abstract Expressionist Zen Space Painting WangMing Color School

Harry James Moody - Art Sketch #398 Physical Abstract

Harry James Moody - Linen with Some Abstract #550

About the Item

I have been thinking about how the simplest of forms can evoke unexpectedly complex feelings and conjure precise meanings. Kazimir Malevich’s stark black square, hung unconventionally in the upper corner of a room like an icon; Mark Rothko’s ethereal, murky monochrome rectangular shapes; and in cultural tropes, the ubiquitous red square of protest (and hope) and the archaic inverted triangle of femininity all speak to this. There is something seductive about these kinds of unornamented forms, as though in their unassuming simplicity, they bypass the complex barriers of cognition that we rely on to interpret the world and filter through its cacophonous stimuli. Instead, these forms may heuristically access some spark of recognition or feeling via a more direct route to the mind. This is the case with Neil Harrison’s monochromatic paintings of clean geometric figures. Harrison’s canvases however—unlike the red square or inverted triangle, which are tethered to specific forms of meaning—are unmoored from particular referents. In their basic composition they masquerade under the aesthetic of well-known symbols, but are instead productions of an artistic imagination: a language playfully void of any context outside the borders of the canvas. They elicit a spark of recognition that is swiftly thwarted in its emptiness as the symbols refer to nothing but themselves. In this way, Harrison draws attention to the currency of symbols in the economy of our visual world, suggesting that we should perhaps be more cognizant of the instinctive connections often made between form and meaning. While symbols are frequently featured in Harrison’s work, his most recent series, Fields, deals more in the language of motif. The clean, precise black lines of these new works evoke the regularity of manufactured objects: fences, racks and grates. The formulaic patterns and imposing bars seem at first an entrapment, but in each of the works there is escape; among the calculated, cage-like rhythms of the paintings, there is always an element of irregularity that breaks the otherwise seamless continuity of Harrison’s pattern. In this play between steady cadence and jarring disruption, the artist challenges the viewer to approach his design-like works not as aesthetic objects, but rather as puzzles that simultaneously pose a problem and furnish its solution. Referencing Black Square, Harrison’s series depart from Malevich’s proclamation of painting as “pure feeling” to propose instead something along the lines of painting as “pure cognition” in their diagrammatic compositions. He relocates computational grids and modernist design from the surfaces of electronic screens and magazine pages, to the clean white walls of the gallery in an effort to re-contextualize the processes of looking at simple forms. The cognitive play that Harrison’s paintings invite is a welcome pause from the barrage of visual matter in our image-saturated world.

Creator:
Neil Harrison (1981, Canadian)
Creation Year:
2014
Dimensions:
Height: 60 in (152.4 cm)Width: 60 in (152.4 cm)Depth: 2 in (5.08 cm)
Medium:
Linen,Acrylic
Movement & Style:
Abstract
Period:
2010-
Condition:
Gallery Location:
Montreal, CA
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU4761708993

More From This Seller

View All

Circuit II

By Christine Nobel

Located in Montreal, Quebec

Christine Nobel’s dabs & systems explores the connections, similarities and differences between the handmade and the digital. Taken from the foundation of the artist’s practice of ex...

Category

2010s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Polyester, Mixed Media, Encaustic, Acrylic

Christine Nobel
Circuit II, 2022

$3,800

Soar

By Christine Nobel

Located in Montreal, Quebec

Christine Nobel’s dabs & systems explores the connections, similarities and differences between the handmade and the digital. Taken from the foundation of the artist’s practice of ex...

Category

2010s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Polyester, Mixed Media, Encaustic, Acrylic

Christine Nobel
Soar, 2022

$4,000

Circuit III

By Christine Nobel

Located in Montreal, Quebec

Christine Nobel’s dabs & systems explores the connections, similarities and differences between the handmade and the digital. Taken from the foundation of the artist’s practice of ex...

Category

2010s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Polyester, Mixed Media, Encaustic, Acrylic

Christine Nobel
Circuit III, 2022

$3,800

Circuit I

By Christine Nobel

Located in Montreal, Quebec

Christine Nobel’s dabs & systems explores the connections, similarities and differences between the handmade and the digital. Taken from the foundation of the artist’s practice of ex...

Category

2010s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Mixed Media, Acrylic, Polyester, Encaustic

Christine Nobel
Circuit I, 2022

$3,800

The Water Table

By Judith Berry

Located in Montreal, Quebec

I think of my paintings primarily as landscapes. Recently, these landscapes appear to be more manufactured than organic. At first glance the subjects seem to be monumental forms such...

Category

2010s Abstract Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

Judith Berry
The Water Table, 2020

$11,000

Encounter

By Judith Berry

Located in Montreal, Quebec

I think of my paintings primarily as landscapes. Recently, these landscapes appear to be more manufactured than organic. At first glance the subjects seem to be monumental forms such...

Category

2010s Abstract Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Judith Berry
Encounter, 2020

$11,000

2010s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil, Linen

Karl Bielik
Medication (Abstract painting), 2018

$8,809

Still Life with Plants and Abstraction

By Stuart Bigley

Located in Germantown, NY

Stuart Bigley is an artist based in New York’s beautiful Hudson Valley. He has been making and showing his artwork for over 40 years. During this time he also co-founded and ran the ...

Category

1970s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Acrylic Polymer, Linen, Oil

Stuart Bigley
Still Life with Plants and Abstraction, 1975

$4,500

Garden Flowers V - small floral original artwork with impressionistic red roses

Located in Zofingen, AG

Looking for a perfect gift for your loved ones or a small treat for yourself? Consider these beautifully crafted, one-of-a-kind acrylic paintings with a textured finish. Each canvas...

Category

2010s Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Spray Paint, Acrylic, Linen

Anastassia Skopp
Garden Flowers V - small floral original artwork with impressionistic red roses, 2024

$404

“So Plant, So Animal” (Graphic, Bold, Abstract, Neutral, Framed, Linen Painting)

By Nicholas Evans

Located in Paris, IDF

Bold yet delicately portrayed, "So Plant, So Animal I" is an abstract piece framed to perfection, offering a timeless neutral color palette. The central theme captures the essence of...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Abstract Abstract Paintings

Materials

Acrylic, Linen, Wood, India Ink

Nicholas Evans
“So Plant, So Animal” (Graphic, Bold, Abstract, Neutral, Framed, Linen Painting), 2022

$1,950

Carolina Ponte - No Title (Large Scale Abstract Painting)

By Carolina Ponte

Located in New York City, NY

CAROLINA PONTE No Title, 2016 60 x 197 inches Acrylic on Linen Message for videos of the piece with more details. The extended present time and the a...

Category

2010s Abstract Expressionist Abstract Paintings

Materials

Linen, Acrylic

Carolina Ponte
Carolina Ponte - No Title (Large Scale Abstract Painting), 2016

Price Upon Request

Beat Seats: geometric abstract painting; red, black, white circles on light blue

Located in Bryn Mawr, PA

"Looking at one of Barry Goldberg‘s paintings is like seeing all of contemporary art mushed into a singular composition; color fields and complementary ...

Category