Untitled 3

The geometric forms and use of bold, flat colour that dominate this early painting by Charles Biederman reflect his growing interest in structure and non-representational composition. He painted it in New York in March 1936, when he was experimenting with different modes of abstraction associated with recent European art movements.

Biederman later described this painting as engaging with the ‘mechanistic structuring’ used by the French painter Fernand Léger. [1] He had initially been inspired by Léger’s innovative use of machine-related imagery, but soon became frustrated by the continued association with representational form:

‘These works reflect a turning to the mechanistic structuring of Léger for a non-representational solution. This direction no more led me to a non-imitative solution than it did for Léger himself. Léger’s method was essentially to adopt mechanistic forms as merely a structuring device for continuing, as did Braque and Picasso in their ways, the simple expressionist rendering of the obsolete art of imitation.’ [2]

Biederman was committed to creating a ‘new art’, completely free from any attempt to imitate or represent the appearance of nature. The year after he made this work, he abandoned painting to focus on constructing abstract geometric reliefs. Using three-dimensional form, colour and light, his reliefs engage with the creative structural processes underpinning the natural world, rather than its appearance. For Biederman, the abstract ‘structurist’ relief was an art form in its own right, related to, but distinct from painting, sculpture and architecture. [3]

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