Tony Robbin's Four-Dimensional Art Journey from Pattern Painting to Mathematical Visualization
Born in 1943, Tony Robbin explores the concept of the fourth dimension through his creations in painting, sculpture, and literature. In his 1992 publication 'Fourfield: Computers, Art, and the Fourth Dimension,' he advocates for a perception of higher-dimensional realities. His artistic journey took off in the 1970s with Pattern Painting, drawing inspiration from Japanese and Persian art, exemplified by 'Japanese Footbridge' (1972), which appeared in 'With Pleasure: Pattern and Decoration in American Art 1972–1985' at LA MoCA. A significant turning point occurred when Whitney curator Marcia Tucker recognized four-dimensional geometry in his pieces, leading him to delve deeply into physics. His 27-foot-long installation 'Fourfield' (1980-81) featured steel rods, while his subsequent works focus on color and brushwork, suggesting that Cubism should be redefined as 'Hypercubism.'
Key facts
- Tony Robbin was born in 1943 and works across painting, sculpture, writing, and research focused on the fourth dimension.
- His 1992 book 'Fourfield: Computers, Art, and the Fourth Dimension' explores higher-dimensional perception using Plato's cave allegory.
- Robbin's early career involved Pattern Painting, with works like 'Japanese Footbridge' (1972) included in the LA MoCA exhibition 'With Pleasure: Pattern and Decoration in American Art 1972–1985'.
- He had a solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum in 1974-5 and exhibited at Tibor de Nagy Gallery in the 1970s.
- In 1980, Robbin studied Thomas Banchoff and Charles Strauss's hypercube animation, leading to his breakthrough work 'Fourfield' (1980-81).
- He holds a patent on applying three-dimensional projections of six-dimensional quasicrystals to architecture.
- Robbin collaborated with mathematicians including H.S.M. Coxeter, George Francis, and Roger Penrose, and created the COAST installation in Copenhagen in 1994.
- His book 'Shadows of Reality; the Fourth Dimension in Relativity, Cubism, and Modern Thought' has been translated into Chinese and argues for renaming Cubism as 'Hypercubism'.
Entities
Artists
- Tony Robbin
- Kazimir Malevich
- Wassily Kandinsky
- Pablo Picasso
- Salvador Dalí
- Marcel Duchamp
- Al Held
- Robert Kushner
- Joyce Kozloff
- Valerie Jaudon
- James Rosenquist
- Robert Smithson
- Man Ray
- Sol Lewitt
- Claude Monet
- Paul Cézanne
- James Ensor
- Emil Nolde
- Dziga Vertov
- John Cage
- Donald Judd
- Masaccio
- Leonardo da Vinci
- Bernard Morin
- Nikolai Lobachevsky
- Rudy Rucker
- Roger Penrose
- Thomas Banchoff
- Charles Strauss
- H.S.M. Coxeter
- George Francis
- Linda Henderson
- Martin Kemp
- Marcia Tucker
- Carter Ratcliff
- Oliver Sacks
Institutions
- Whitney Museum
- Tibor de Nagy Gallery
- LA MoCA
- Bard College
- Brown University
- Arts magazine
- Art News
- Artcritical
- Frieze
- Artforum
- Hyperallergic
Locations
- Japan
- Iran
- Copenhagen
- Denmark
- Zurich
- Switzerland
- Paris
- France
- Russia