Cercle et Carré and the International Spirit of Abstract Art

This catalogue accompanies the first major exhibition devoted to the art and activities of Cercle et Carré (Circle and Square), the artistic group cofounded in 1929 by Pierre Daura (1896 1976), Joaquín Torres-García (1874 1949) and Michel Seuphor (1901 1999). It includes essays by Pierre Daura Curator of European Art Lynn Boland, Laura Valeri, Catherine Dossin and Filip Lipinski, artists' biographies by Caroline Barratt and translations into English of the group's three journal issues for the first time (by Laura Valeri). The book includes a section of 126 color plates, including not only works included in the Georgia Museum of Art's exhibition but also works that appeared in Cercle et Carré's original 1930 exhibition in Paris and that were published in its journal. Artists represented include Daura, Torres-García, Seuphor, Hans Arp, Marcelle Cahn, Franciska Clausen, Le Corbusier, Wassily Kandinsky, Fernand Léger, Piet Mondrian, Antoine Pevsner, Kurt Schwitters, Joseph Stella, Sophie Taeuber-Arp and H.N. Werkman. A black-and-white section of images reproduces photographs from that original exhibition, of both its installation and the artists involved. Complementing the primary-source materials in the Georgia Museum of Art's Pierre Daura Center's archives, this exhibition and its catalogue make an important contribution to understanding international abstract art in the period between the wars.