The Persistence of Geometry: Form, Content, and Culture in the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art

Geometry can be found all around us. The Persistence of Geometry is an exploration of the visualization of geometry and geometrical forms through history with a special emphasis on modern and contemporary art. It is a highly personal visual journey that records not only the commonalities of human perception throughout the ages and in different cultures, but also the continuing dialogue of vanguard art from the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries with traditional and historical art.

The Persistence of Geometry provides an opportunity to understand forms and shapes as carriers of meaning that are both specific to a particular cultural context and universal in their immediate appeal. Paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints, photographs, ceramics, textiles, utensils and furniture from historic and contemporary cultures worldwide illustrate how geometric structures and abstract visual vocabularies have communicated meaning throughout history. I n the modern era, these geometric forms have served as vehicles for revolutionary distillations of form and narrative and as the foundations for conceptual and social models of new societal values.

Dr. Lowery Stokes Sims, President of The Studio Museum in Harlem, has curated over 40 exhibitions, many reflecting an interest in African American and women artists; written extensively on African, Latino, Native and Asian American artists; and taught art history, curatorship, and art criticism at Bard College and Queens College, among others.