Mineur

1949
Not on view
In 1946, following his establishment with other artists of the influential group Abstraction-Création, an association that fostered abstraction in the arts, Auguste Herbin co-founded the Paris-based Salon des Réalités Nouvelles as its successor. Mineur dates from the period when Herbin was developing a dynamic vocabulary of abstract forms and solid colors, promoted in his 1949 text L’art non-figuratif, non-objectif (Non-Figurative, Non-Objective Art), in which he addressed his theory of color as well as the complex interface of writing, music, and the visual arts. He called this arrangement of triangles, circles, and rectangles in bright colors an alphabet plastique (plastic alphabet).

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Mineur
  • Artist: Auguste Herbin (French, Quiévy 1882–1960 Paris)
  • Date: 1949
  • Medium: Opaque watercolor on paper
  • Dimensions: 17 1/2 × 13 1/2 in. (44.5 × 34.3 cm)
  • Classification: Works on Paper
  • Credit Line: Gift of the Maria and Conrad Janis Estate, 2024
  • Object Number: 2024.88.10
  • Rights and Reproduction: © 2025 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
  • Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art

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