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.
One of the most striking features of Minimal Art is the apparent absence of the artist's hand. This characteristic is immediately evident in Terry Haggerty’s works that combine optical effects with pure geometric abstraction.
Haggerty creates technically sophisticated images, which he designs using a computer. His process involves transferring the computer-generated design to a perfectly smooth, primed canvas using a masking film. He then applies paint, sometimes monochrome, sometimes with a delicate gradient from one color to another. Finally, he refines the surface with a series of varnish layers. The technical sophistication and painterly precision produce a motif that evokes Op Art. Visual tricks, shifts and effects challenge the viewer's perception. In works such as Memory Fold (2012), the linear arrangements at the edges of the image are broken by bending the lines in another direction. Thus, Haggerty creates an illusion of spatiality where there is actually flatness, activating the geometric planes of color and the gaps between them.