Suman Vaze
Artists
Suman Vaze
Artist, Maths teacher
King George V School
Hong Kong
Statement
Through my work, I seek to understand both mathematics and art better. These works reference Joseph Albers book Interaction of Color and use Puzzle No 8 from James Tanton’s book More Without Words to investigate the interaction of colour. I have used the puzzle’s structure to do an inquiry into painting layers of squares of different sizes and colours.
Artworks
Pink Yellow White Squares
51 x 61 cm
acrylic on canvas
2018
White Pink Yellow Squares
51 x 61 cm
acrylic on canvas
2018
The painting is constructed with adjacent squares of different colour so that the diagonals of the squares trace the ricocheting path of a ball shot at an angle of 45° from one corner of the canvas. In an m x n rectangle where m and n are relatively prime, the number of straight paths of the ball before it falls into a corner is m + n - 1. This is therefore the number of squares required to complete the picture. A 24”x20” canvas requires 10 adjacent squares to be painted. Using 3 colours it is possible to paint the picture in 6 different ways. I have used pink, yellow and white to create a complete set of six works, only two of which are shown at this exhibition. Drips and smudges are intentionally left in.