Description
The reduction of form to vertical and horizontal lines and the use of only black, white, and primary colors seen in this work characterized the art and design of the early 20th-century avant-garde Dutch De Stijl group. Although primarily a sculptor, Georges Vantongerloo insisted that his two-dimensional works were equally crucial to his practice. At the time that he made The Function of Lines, he was a member of Abstraction-Création, a Paris-based, international association of artists dedicated to the principles of pure abstraction.
Provenance
Galerie Yvon Lambert, Paris, by 1980 [Washington D.C. 1980 exh. cat]. The Elkon Gallery, New York. Alain Tarica, Paris. Annely Juda Fine Art, London, by 1984 [London 1984 exh. cat.]; sold to Edward Hirschland (born 1948), Chicago, May 1987; sold Christie’s, New York, May 10, 2007, lot 175, to Jan Krugier (1928–2008), Geneva; sold, Christie’s, New York, Nov. 5, 2013, lot 185, to the Gray Collection Trust, Chicago; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 2019.
Accession Number
244918
Medium
Brush with opaque and transparent watercolor and pen and black ink on beige, wove paper
Dimensions
49.1 × 59.9 cm (19 3/8 × 23 5/8 in.)
Classification
drawings (visual works)
Credit Line
Gift of Richard and Mary L. Gray
