Relief: Triangular Motif II

The dynamic relationship between three linked triangles dominates this shallow relief. They have been marked out in wood, aluminium and hardboard to form a vertical strip, set against two panels of white formica. The materials have been carefully layered to create a series of planes, which come in and out of view as the spectator moves around the relief.

John Ernest was committed to exploring the potential of non-figurative art. He began making abstract constructions in London in 1954, and went on to focus on meticulously constructed geometric reliefs. [1] The tension between viewing the individual parts of the relief and experiencing the work as a whole was crucial for Ernest:

‘I want to bring about a struggle in the mind of the spectator between the separateness of the parts and the unity into which they are meant to fuse.’ [2]

The isosceles triangle was an important motif for Ernest and reoccurs in his reliefs. The repetition of triangles used in this and other works was informed by Ernest’s interest in the complex dynamics of symmetry. He was fascinated by parallels between the rules of geometry and the new ways that artists were engaging with abstract spatial relationships. Ernest clarified that this was not about directly translating mathematical concepts and systems into artworks. He was interested in how mathematics could further an artist’s discovery of new conceptual frameworks:

‘True symmetry, the discipline which precisely determines a structure of spatial relations, has no place in the arts. Though it may provide an artist with a rigorous background against which he may fashion his work, he cannot use it in its pure state. But the artist who explores symmetry, may find in the formal rhythms and hyper-rhythms of space, a rich material for the tense and vital structures which he is concerned to build.’ [3]

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