Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

This book is devoted to the global development of geometric abstraction and includes the works of Carl Andre, David Batchelor, Dan Flavin, Andrea Fraser, Kazimir Malevich, Piet Mondrian, Gabriel Orozco, Hélio Oiticica, Aleksandr Rodchenko, Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Rosemarie Trockel, Theo Van Doesburg, Zhao Yao, and Andrea Zittel. Exploring how the universal visual language of geometric abstraction relates to society and politics, this volume also demonstrates how the movement's revolutionary aesthetic continues to impact culture across the globe. It traces a century of abstract art from 1915 to the present day and includes sculpture, film, photography, and painting. Organized around four distinct themes--architectonics, communication, the everyday, and utopia--the book presents a chronological survey extending from Russia to Europe, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Central America, South America, and the US. Each of the 100 works is featured in double-page spreads with brief artist biographies. Essays by Tanya Barson, Briony Fer, Tom McDonough, and Jiang Jiehong and introductory texts by the Curators contextualize the various geographic and aesthetic stages of the development of geometric abstraction.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

This visually rich, compellingly designed catalogue accompanied an exhibition held at London's Whitechapel Gallery during the early months of 2015. The exhibition closely examined the role of Kazimir Malevich's Black Square (1915) in the formation and dissemination of geometric abstraction, attempting to unravel its many complex meanings, associations, and uses. One learns of its utopian aspirations, its connections to architectural design and theory, its applications in industrial design, its graphic design, and--particularly intriguing--its international influence. The manifestations of geometric abstraction in Latin America, the Middle East, and China are explored in three of five essays. Jiang Jiehong's essay on China, for instance, posits an interesting thesis: because China was beholden to Western realism, geometric abstraction did not manifest itself in sculpted or painted form in China during the 20th century but rather as performance "by the masses through collective assemblies." The catalogue is organized into four main sections ("Utopia," "Architectonics," "Communication," and "The Everyday"), each of which is fronted by an introductory essay and copiously illustrated with large color plates. Useful back matter includes artist biographies and a list of works included in the exhibition. Oddly, no bibliography is included though the essays have endnotes. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Graduate students, researchers, faculty; general readers. --David E. Gliem, Eckerd College