Hans Hinterreiter: the infinite game of geometry and color

The Juan March de Palma presents an exhibition of this
Swiss artist linked throughout his life to Ibiza.
The exhibition is completed with an experimental film cycle with pieces by Man Ray and Duchamp, among others.
Hans Hinterreiter. SWF 103, 1973. Acrylic on canvas 66 x 92 cm. Chantal and Jakob Bill Collection
He spent most of his life in Ibiza where he settled in the 30s recently arrived from Switzerland. However, Hans Hinterreiter (1902-1989) is not too well known in our country. Aware of this, the Museu Fundación Juan March in Palma recovers his work in a retrospective that includes some 75 works inspired by geometric patterns, music and theories of color.
Hinterreiter came to painting after studying mathematics and architecture. At that moment he discovered the theory of color systematized by chemist and Nobel Prize winner Wilhelm Ostwald and decided to devote all his efforts to develop a theoretical and practical approach.
On the one hand, the Swiss would give form to two peculiar devices called Formorgel (organ of form) and Farborgel (organ of color), which allowed him to obtain multiple formal and chromatic combinations from elementary geometric structures. In addition, he gathered his knowledge in two books Geometric Beauty (1958) and The Art of the Pure Form (1978)
. The result of a lifetime dedicated to geometry can now be seen in this exhibition curated by Jakob Bill, alongside the son of Max Bill, the creator of the abstract-concrete art circle associated with Hinterreiter's style. The exhibition, which can be seen until May 26 and will then go to the Museum of Abstract Art in Cuenca, is one of the most complete retrospectives that have been made of the Swiss. In 1973 he made one in Winterthur, his hometown, and in 1988 another in the Guggenheim in New York.
Bearing in mind that the artist imagined his work irremediably linked to movement, a series of experimental films entitled The Abstraction in Motion (1921-2010), which includes a selection of twenty films ranging from the avant-garde, has been added as a complement. from the 20s to our days and explore the relationship between form, color and music.
This cycle has been conceived by MAD, the creators of Punto y Raya, including classic names such as those of Man Ray, Hans Richter, Marcel Duchamp, Walter Ruttmann, Oskar Fischinger, László Moholy-Nagy and contemporary creators such as Larry Cuba, Adam Beckett or Aurora Gasull-Altisent.