Hanneke Abbenhuis

Statement

Hanneke Abbenhuis graduated in 1982 with a master’s degree in mathematics from Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands. From then until retiring in 2023, she held a career as a mathematics teacher in pre-university and higher professional education. Alongside her work as a teacher, she pursued her passion for visual art, taking art classes in painting and after her retirement also in ceramics. Her intentions as an artist are to share and explore the beauty of mathematics. Her paintings involve combinatorial puzzling, symmetry, impossible figures and optical illusions. Hexagons, triangles, and circles appear throughout her work as base figures - creating interesting motifs while simultaneously visualizing the mathematical principles.

Artworks

In this work called "Permutations" Hanneke used a hexagon as the base figure divided into 3 hexagons (rings), each divided into 3 parts. They are coloured such that in each "ring" there is a black, striped, and white part. Each ring can be oriented in 2 ways. Only configurations are shown in which adjacent colours are different. There are 28 hexagons possible. The colouring pattern used creates a 3D effect. Your eyes will try to see a cube, however this effect is unstable. Your eyes will either see a large cube with a smaller cube inside or a large cube with a missing corner.