Cercle et Carré (Circle and Quadrangle)

Franciska Clausen utilised the dynamic properties of the circle and the reactions it creates on the retina of the human eye to develop this composition. In the artist’s own words: ‘It was a composition based on the circle, rectangle and square … I began by painting a black disc, and as I stared at it, a white circle slid out of it and across to the left. Of course, this was an image formed on the retina alone, but it prompted me to paint a white circle tangential to the black one. It was a kind of afterimage.’ The title Cercle et Carré not only describes the elements of the picture. It is also the name of an international artists’ group with which Clausen was associated. The group was formed in Paris in 1929 as a counterpoint to Surrealism’s interest in human psychology and drives. Instead, the members of Cercle et Carré favoured pure form, seeking meaning in a predominantly abstract and constructivist idiom (50 Favorites in the SMK Collection).