Noa Attia
Sphere + Egg + Dropp
1990
Silkscreen on acrylic
25 in x 25 in. x 4 1/2 in.
Gift of Louis K. & Susan Pear Meisel
(2 Cones) 3
1989
Silkscreen on acrylic
12 1/2 in. x 12 1/2 in. x 4 1/2 in.
Gift of Mark Brenner
Noa Attia (b. 1945) is an Israeli sculptor whose work combines science and art through their geometric forms. Attia’s artist statement, which is derived from the ancient philosopher Euripides, summarizes her feeling towards art: “Mighty is geometry; joined with art, resistless.”1 Her works are innovative in their approach to merging mathematics and art into aesthetically appealing and interesting compositions. Attia was born in Israel and eventually moved to the United States with her husband. Currently, she resides in Palo Alto California.
She studied Science, Architecture and Town Planning from 1962 to 1967 at Technion, the Israel Institute of Technology. During the course of her artistic career, her works have been featured within the Louis Meisel Gallery and the Okin & Kaufman Gallery.2 She also had designs commissioned by the Museum of Modern Art.
Her works generally feature geometric forms on grids within acrylic cubes. The solid hued geometric forms are suspended within the box on a grid plan that makes the viewer visually aware of the connected relationship between the shape and the confines of the cube. The cube, in conjunction with the grid pattern, creates a visual framing plane for the shapes and serves as a surrounding container to the multiple layers of acrylic that have the grid pattern and subject on them.
Sphere + Egg + Drop falls within Attia's general sculptural form, but is different in its with its use of shapes and acrylic grids. Unlike a number of her other works, this sculpture does not have a grid pattern spanning the entire piece. Also, it is not a careful observation of one singular form, but instead three differing shapes that are repeated as the eye moves across the work. These shapes appear similar to the shapes listed in the title and arranged in three seperate rows. The left side of the piece features solid colored shapes that are dissected into layers. The far opposing side of the piece features a similar layered dissection of a clear graphed shape. The lines surrounding the clear shape originate in the center of the shape and expand to trace the exterior of the shape and create a square border. In the center, the oppsing columns merge and the viewer can clearly see the grid pattern atop the colored and disected shape.
(2 Cones)3 is a more typical example of her work and features a singular predominately linear form surrounded by tight grid. These elements are segemented in layers within an enclosed acrylic box. The colored linear form almost appears as a skewed oblong semicircle. This curving form converges in the center of the grid on the right side. The grid surrounding the shape then converges at the same point and expands outward to align with the pointed edges of the colored curving form.
Attia has described this series of works as follows:
“I have created a universe in which my objects are free from having to comply with the laws of nature. Since gravity, tension and pressure do not apply in this world, I am able to create a new reality. By printing my geometric drawings on layers of transparent background, a spatial vocabulary is created in which order and logic can be explored and communicated in ways not otherwise possible. Entities of one and two dimensions are put together to create a three dimensional work of a different kind…Until I found my own set of tools which not only enabled me to bring these ideas into reality, but to approach order and logic in a much more complex and sophisticated way as well.”3
1. Noa Attia, "(sphere minus cylinder)," SculptSite Web Forum, Accessed December 15, 2016, https://sculptsite.com/sculpture/Noa-Attia/(sphere%20minus%20cylinder).↩
2. Noa Attia to SculptSite web forum, "Noa Attia Biography," SculpSite Web Forum. Accessed December 15, 2016, https://sculptsite.com/sculptor/Noa-Attia/biography ↩
3. Attia, "(sphere minus cylinder)." ↩
-Amanda Page