Construction II

This sculpture is one of Biederman’s earliest experiments with radically abstracted forms. Biederman was first exposed to Cubism in New York City in the mid-1930s. His own personal style blended the Cubists’ approach of fracturing ordinary forms with Piet Mondrian’s purely geometric abstractions. He eliminated personal expression in favor of geometric control, but nonetheless based his constructions on natural structures revealed through science: it is possible to imagine patterns of electrical sparks or X-ray diffraction in this dynamic piece. For the last fifty years of his life, Biederman lived in the small town of Red Wing, Minnesota, where he developed his geometric relief sculptures in painted aluminum.