Geometric Abstraction

About the Artwork

Active just after World War II, Pim van Os was a pioneering Dutch photographer who gained considerable recognition in postwar Europe for his experimental imagery. This abstract composition was made exclusively with the camera, and the movement of light is both the means of expression and the subject of the picture. Layered geometric shapes give the slightest sense of a three-dimensional arrangement of bold shapes.

Inscriptions

Written in black ink on verso: "top"; in pencil: "PVO-011"

Exhibition history

The Persistence of Geometry: Form, Content and Culture in the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland (MOCA), Cleveland, OH (June 9-August 20, 2006).

Quick Overview

Artist: Pim van Os (Dutch, 1910–1954)
Date: c. 1950
Medium: gelatin silver print
Dimensions: Image: 23.7 x 17.7 cm (9 5/16 x 6 15/16 in.); Matted: 50.8 x 40.6 cm (20 x 16 in.)
Type: Photograph
Classification: Photograph
Department: Photography
Credit line: John L. Severance Fund
Accession no.: 1993.143

Provenance

The Cleveland Museum of Art’s open-access data does not include an ownership history for this work. See the museum’s page for this work.

Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.