Lines of thought

Hemali Bhuta

Richard Long

Sol Lewitt

James Bishop

 Raoul de Keyser

Few days ago I had a skype session with Stefan, one of my best friends who lives in New-York and studies Art Theories at Colombia University. We were briefly talking about art theoricians who are sometimes so boring to read such as Adorno or Greenberg and came to my mind only a single book that I really liked while in art school Point and Line to Plane by Wassily Kandinsky.

Kandinksy (first abstract watercolor in 1910)

Kandinsky, the very first abastract artist, taught art theory at the Bauhaus, the legendary german design&art school. He also conducted painting classes where he developped his studies on point and line forms. He understood point and line forms as a language of pure art beyond appearances that speaks directly to the human soul.The simple act of extending a point by drawing with pen or pencil on paper, has paradoxically made line one of the most powerful forms of artistic expression in the history of mankind. 
Well,that's the theory and if you want to see the practice, there is an exhibition running in London Lines of thought at the Parasol unit foundation for contemporary art which features fifteen contemporary artists who use line as the prominent element of their work. 
How simple is a line but how different it can be. Curved, straight, geometric, continous or broken, lines divide countries, boundaries, create surfaces, separate light from shadow. Line is the core element of nature and shows its extravagancy and complexity.


Parasol unit foundation for contemporary art
29 february - 13 may 2012
14 Wharf Road
London N1 7RW
Admission free !