The Geometry of Beauty

Highly readable and featuring ninety-six color illustrations, The Geometry of Beauty is a robust history of the art and artists of the geometric abstract movement and an important contribution to our understanding of a body of work that has yet to be fully appreciated. "Bartos offers a compelling account of the rich history and enduring aesthetic power of geometric abstract art. Writing with the passion of a committed collector and the sensibility of an art historian, Bartos doesn't just chart his subject--he defends its place within the contemporary art world and provokes larger questions about what makes art meaningful. Bartos's unusual combination of art history, critique, and artist testimony reinvigorates one's appreciation of contemporary geometric abstract art."--Barnaby Wright, deputy head of the Courtauld Gallery and the Daniel Katz Curator of 20th Century Art "The author's thoughtful consideration of Alan Reynolds, Peter Joseph, Marc Vaux, John Carter, Callum Innes, and Luke Frost--six artists whose beautiful and deeply intelligent work Bartos reveres and collects--examines why geometric abstraction developed as a side-stream to figuration in British art, appreciated more enthusiastically abroad than at home. Interviews with the artists and those who knew them, illustrated with fine examples across a range of media, explore what drew each to pursue a means of expression that developed against the grain of British modernism. These thoughtful conversations press for a serious reconsideration of the artists' work and of British geometric abstraction more generally."--Amy Meyers, director, Yale Center for British Art