Herbert Bayer
Austrian, 1900-1985 (active America)

Triangulation with Hidden Square, 1970
acrylic on canvas
50 1/4 × 50 1/4 in.

SBMA, Gift of Robert B. and Mercedes H. Eichholz
2014.17.4



Undated photo of Herbert Bayer

“The total personality is involved in the creative process. It is a unified process in which ‘head, heart, and hand’ play a simultaneous role.” – Herbert Bayer

RESEARCH PAPER

Herbert Bayer’s “Triangulation with Hidden Squares” is a complex blend of brilliant neon colors and geometric shapes. Bayer, like Moholy Nagy, was a student at the Bauhaus. This painting reflects his belief in the necessity of the integration of art and technology. It also demonstrates his continued commitment and respect for the science of geometry and color and the limitless configurations they could generate. Here Bayer uses ascending and descending tones and hues of color, as well as geometric shapes of triangles and squares to create an optical illusion of a floating square. The isosceles triangles in the middle of the painting draw the eye upward, while the small, right triangles form a checkboard of squares which surround the center strip. It is Bayer’s intriguing and stimulating use of color, however, which captivates. The colors of the small alternating triangles as they descend in the painting follow the order of the color wheel from yellow to orange to red to blue, finally ending in green at the bottom point of the painting. The black triangles and triangles with darker hues of color help to define the edges of the floating square. The shape of the painting itself is a square. However, it is hung diagonally so it appears as a diamond shape. Rotated and viewed as a square, even more patterns are seen radiating outward and up from the small green triangle that forms the base of the painting. The never ending possibilities of patterns that can be formed with simple geometric shapes is apparent. It is a striking painting which draws the viewer in with its pulsating colors and rigorously defined shapes.

In 1921 Bayer was a student at the prestigious Bauhaus studying under Wassily Kandinsky and Paul Klee. His studies at the Bauhaus played a very important part in his paintings, letter designs and interior designs. Bayer was a comprehensive artist: painter, sculptor, photographer, architect, illustrator and graphic, industrial, furniture, textile and exhibition designer. However, he was best known as a graphic designer. Bayer designed his own lowercase typeface, “universal”, and advocated for lowercase’s efficiency and economy. In his dynamic and innovative designs, he produced primarily Cubist- and Constructivist- inspired images. He practiced the Bauhaus dictum that in architecture, painting, photography, design and sculpture, the hand and the machine should all be unified. (Esplund, 2020).

In 1938 Bayer arrived in the United States where he contacted American corporations. Soon Bayer was extending his vocabulary from visual communication to total design. He designed graphics, landscapes and factories, and restored the Wheeler Opera House in Aspen, Colorado. He oversaw advertising campaigns and designed exhibitions for the Museum of Modern Art. He was a major proponent of Bauhaus thinking and European modernist art in the U.S. – especially graphic design.

In later years Bayer moved to Montecito, California, where he continued to create abstract paintings, murals and enormous minimalist sculptures. One of these sculptures, “Chromatic Gate”, resides in Arco Circle on Cabrillo Boulevard along the beach in Santa Barbara. The 21-foot sculpture was installed in 1991 with the help of Paul Mills, director of the Santa Barbara Museum of Art.

Prepared for the Santa Barbara Museum of Art Docent Council by Martha Castaneda, 2020.
Prepared for the Docent Council website by Patty Santiago, 2020

Bibliography
Cohen, Arthur. “Herbert Bayer: The Complete Work”, Cambridge, Massachusetts, MIT Press, 1984.

Donelan, Charles. “Review: Herbert Bayer Photomontages at SBMA”, Santa Barbara Independent, July 1, 2015.

Esplund, Lance. “Herbert Bayer: Bauhaus Master’ Review: Graphic Design, Poetic and Striking”, The Wall Street Journal, January 18, 2020

SBMA CURATORIAL LABELS

Like Moholy-Nagy, Bayer studied and worked at the Bauhaus, and believed in the necessity of the integration art and technology. Triangulation with Hidden Square is a mature work, made after his emigration to the United States in 1938. when viewed at the appropriate distance, this rigorously designed arrangement of squares and triangles generates the optical illusion of a floating square. Like Joseph Albers, Bayer's project in paint remained committed to the Bauhaus respect for the science of geometry and color and the limitless configurations these fundamental laws could generate. And like Albers and Moholy-Nagy, Bayer exerted an enormous influence on subsequent cutting-edge art in America during the 20th century and beyond.

- SBMA, 2015