Tomma Abts's Geometric Abstraction Exhibition at Galerie Buchholz Examines Modernist Legacy

Tomma Abts's exhibition at Galerie Buchholz in Berlin from 10 November 2017 to 13 January 2018 featured her distinctive geometric abstract paintings. Her works consistently measure 48 x 38 cm and employ meticulous layering of hard-edged color planes. Abts creates self-referential compositions that function as visual puzzles, emphasizing their own structural mechanisms rather than depicting external subjects. The exhibition included the bronze piece Jelto (2017), which presents a painting-as-ingot concept with shallow relief tracks receding into the corner. Abts's approach distinguishes itself from earlier modernist artists like Martin Boyce, Sergej Jensen, David Maljkovic, and Katja Strunz by avoiding irony in her engagement with formalism. Her paintings reference art historical concepts including W.H. Auden's notion of art as 'contraption' and Michael Fried's 'deductive structure' theory. The shaped canvases in her work create a punning relationship between composition and support. Abts's art maintains a pure aestheticism focused on artisanal skill rather than making worldly distinctions.