The artwork Inca by Leon Polk Smith is a collection 48 canvases arranged in a 4 by 12 grid. Each of the paintings has a slightly rounded corner, and they are butted right up to one another exposing the negative spaces in the corners where they meet. The c anvases themselves havecircles with a quarter of the circle cut out in most cases, in others it's two half circles joined. When you see it al together the lines created by the circle divisions create somewhat random and shapes of squares and paths. The colors used in the work are primary blue and red but also a plum color and black. The overall feeling you get when you look at the work is a tension between simplicity and complexity, logic and the illogical. It's at the same time very analytic but very human.

Leon_Polk_Smith_INCA-1970

Acrylic on canvas
48 total canvases ea. measuring 13 3/4in. x 13 34 3/4 in.