Negative Optic Electric Force, Positive Optic Electric Force (Primary Title)
Alfred Jensen, American, born Guatemala, 1903 - 1981 (Artist)
“The artist in me is not only seeking a renewal of worn out visual representations, but is as well engaged in the reestablishment of man’s lost ties with the universal laws of nature.” —Alfred Jensen
Emerging onto the New York art scene in the 1950s with his gestural painting style, Jensen seemed aligned with Abstract Expressionism. Yet Jensen was not a purely abstract artist. He filled his canvases with numbers, letters, and other visual signs that encouraged the viewer to “read” his paintings.
The concentric circles, repeated symbols, and mirroring of color in this work characterize Jensen’s diagrammatic style. He includes positive, negative, and neutral symbols to refer to the energy of electromagnetic fields mentioned in the title. The circular forms and structured color-play recall ancient cultures from Chinese to Mayan and their emphasis on dualities, such as light and dark, which Jensen believed to be the basis of all life.
Alfred Jensen: Paintings and Diagrams from the Years 1957-77, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY, January 15 – February 26, 1978; The New Museum, New York, NY, March 10 – April 21, 1978; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL, May 5 – June 23, 1978; La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art, La Jolla, CA, and Department of Fine Arts Gallery, University of Colorado Museum, Boulder, CO, July 3 – August 6, 1978; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA, August 18 – October 1, 1978
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