Colourist Geometries and Rule-Set Art

Colourist-Geometries_and_Rule-Set_Art
Colourist Geometries – Howard R. Barnhart

Howard R. Barnhart is been producing some exquisite geometric art that’s worth investigation. Using Colorist and Constructivist methods, he has produced a range of work in different mediums that have at times a computational aesthetic. In fact his journals (scroll to bottom of the page) seem to contain references to systems or ‘algorithms’ for the ordering of colors and shapes in his work.

This pulls us over to Sol Lewitt’s maxim ‘The idea becomes the machine that makes the art’. Lewitt worked using sets of instructions to produce geometrically precise paintings and in doing so set a precedent in the area of generative art. Interestingly Nu-school computation artisans have looked at Lewitt’s rule-set methodology as a way of questioning the relevancy of this type of conceptual art to current software-based art.

Leave a Reply