Endless Possibilities: Geometric Abstraction
The UBS Lounge at Art Basel in Basel 2025 features works in the UBS Art Collection by international artists who engage with geometric abstraction.
Nelly Rudin was a member of the second generation of Zurich Concrete Art. Her process was influenced by her training in graphic design at the Kunstgewerbeschule Basel and her early works followed the “less is more” principle that she learned there. She reduced her compositions to the basic elements of form and color, painting squares, triangles, circles and their fractions and then blending the edges and blurring them together. Nr. 203 (1974) appears both dynamic and perfectly calibrated. The interplay of circular shapes in complementary hues suggests movement, yet the overall effect remains harmonious.
From 1976 onwards, Rudin moved further away from flat surfaces, creating works with painted frames and edges, as well as completely freestanding acrylic glass prisms. Many of her objects employ the viewer’s position and perspective and can only be fully grasped by looking at them from different angles. By going beyond the two-dimensional image surface into the three-dimensional space, Rudin expanded the vocabulary of Concrete Art.