Geometry serves as an important basis for art, especially abstract art. In the early twentieth century, artists moved away from representation, instead making works that did not correspond to visual phenomena found in the real world. During this turn, they came to rely more on basic Euclidean geometry: shapes—like squares, triangles, and circles—flat planes, and sharp angles. This geometric work was expressed in paintings, sculptures, textiles, and other art forms. Highly geometric abstraction could be found in such important early twentieth avant garde art movements as Suprematism, Constructivism, De Stijl, and Cubism. The effects could also be seen in practical applications, like Bauhaus furniture and architecture. By relying on geometry, artists could craft perfectly balanced compositions. Piet Mondrian, for example, a Dutch painter and member of the De Stijl movement, divided his picture planes with thick, perfectly straight black lines, offsetting rectangles of blue, red, yellow, and white. American artist Ellsworth Kelly felt inspired by the precedents set by European modernism, and also by the graceful shapes he saw in nature. His elegant shaped canvases and balanced prints draw from both sources.

Geometry continues to influence contemporary art today. Stanley Whitney’s vibrant paintings are divided into grids, and brightly colored segments dance across the canvas with a playful, improvised rhythm. Stephen Westphal’s compositions take a harder edge, their surfaces organized around a gridded or striped format. Conceptual artist Sol LeWitt experimented with geometry in both his wall drawings, often structured around strict angles and shapes, and his sculptures, often taking the structure of a cube as the starting point. Other contemporary artists using geometry in their work include Alberto Gonzalez Vivo, Harriet Korman, Richard Kalina, Ann Pibal, and Jose Leon Cerillo.