The idealist square becomes the prison. Geometry is revealed as confinement. The cell is a reminder of the apartment house, the hospital bed, the school desk – the isolated endpoints of industrial structure. – Peter Halley
Peter Halley, an accomplished American writer, theorist, and critic, makes paintings depicting colorful geometric shapes connected by conduit-like passages. His interest in systems is conveyed through geometric motifs that critique the qualities heralded by artists working within Modernist Art and Architecture’s framework. This untitled painting features four “prisons,” as Halley refers to these square and rectangular forms, made up of fluorescent, textured paint, connected by 90-degree Day-Glo conduit. This painting is a quintessential work in Halley’s greater oeuvre. Halley has shown in major galleries and museums, among them MoMA, New York; Dallas Museum of Art; and Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt.
