Ruth Vollmer, 1961–1978: Thinking the Line

Cover of the publication »Ruth Vollmer, 1961–1978: Thinking the Line«

Type of publication
Exhibition catalog
Author / Editor
Nadja Rottner and Peter Weibel (Eds.)
Publishing house, place
Hatje Cantz, Ostfildern
Year
2006
Content

At the forefront of some of the most significant artistic developments of the sixties was a group of New York–based artists that included Sol LeWitt, Robert Smithson, Mel Bochner, Eva Hesse, Richard Tuttle, and a lesser-known figure named Ruth Vollmer (1903–1982). The German-born émigré, Vollmer devoted her work to the cross-fertilization of science, mathematics, and the visual arts. Drawing from sources as diverse as Plato’s philosophy of mathematics and Bernhard Riemann’s non-Euclidean conception of space, the artist freely experimented with the many permutations of the sphere, from the circle, spiral, and pseudosphere to the ephemeral soap bubble. With her mathematical formalism, Vollmer participated in a constructivist revival, rejecting late-modernist notions of geometric abstraction in favor of »thinking the line«. 

Featuring selected sculptures and drawings, statements by the artist, and essays by art historians as well as the artists who knew her this book is the first to offer a thorough account of Vollmer’s works.

Language
English
Description
231 p. : chiefly ill.
ISBN
3-7757-1786-2 ; 978-3-7757-1786-1
Organization / Institution
ZKM | Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie Karlsruhe
Partners

Neue Galerie am Landesmuseum Joanneum ; Miami Art Central ; Ursula Blickle Stiftung

Sponsors

Australian Federal Ministry for Education, Art, and Science ; Bundeskanzleramt der Republik Österreich, Abteilung Kunst