Bowdoin College Museum of Art | - Disks on Three Axes

Preview image of work. mixed media, Disks on Three Axes 26350

2013.21.312

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Disks on Three Axes

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Artist

Ruth Vollmer (Munich, Germany, 1903 - 1/1/1982)

Title

Disks on Three Axes

Creation Date

n.d.

Century

20th-early 21st century ?

Dimensions

4 in. (10.16 cm)

Classification

Sculpture

Creation Place

North America, United States

Medium and Support

mixed media

Credit Line

Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection

Copyright

This artwork may be under copyright. For further information, please consult the Museum’s Copyright Terms and Conditions.

Accession Number

2013.21.312

Greatly admired by the Vogels, to whom she offered friendship and warm encouragement, as well as by many others involved with minimal and conceptual art, Ruth Vollmer was a German-born artist, immigrated to New York in 1935. Her work frequently reflected a deep-seeded interest in mathematical principles. Working in a range of materials, both graphic and three-dimensional, Vollmer exhibited at the Betty Parsons Gallery, which espoused cutting edge work. This paper sculpture bespeaks the Vogel’s interest in her work. Vollmer noted: “Being immersed in the mystery of the sphere, I can vaguely perceive a variety of manifestations: cosmic and earthly, biological and crystalline. … Of all forms, the sphere is the most purely three-dimensional… . It touches any plane at only one point. And a sphere can never be constructed from planes.