What is that?

Can Geometry Be Art?

Find out how geometry, maths and art aren't as different as you think!

Part of UNIQLO Tate Play in partnership with UNIQLO. Please visit the Tate website with an adult.

Geometry is the study of shapes and patterns! Maybe you're learning about it in your maths lessons at school?

But hang on – what does geometry have to do with ART? Can geometry BE art?

Art, maths and geometry might be very different subjects at school but let's find out about how they overlap in every day life! In the clothes we wear, in insects, wallpaper, the tiles on buildings, or even when we're playing Minecraft!

Watch this film to learn about what shape, colour, pattern and art all have in common - and some of the ways different artists explore geometry in their work!

Geometry keywords

Here are some keywords that we explain in the film:

Geometry - the study of shapes and patterns

Geometric Art - art that is based on shapes and patterns

Symmetry - a shape or an object that can be split into two identical pieces

Pattern - when shapes appear together in a repeated way

Tessellation - when a pattern fits together without any gaps

So what is Geometric Art?

Geometric art is art that is based on shapes and patterns.

Take a look at the artworks below, and see how they explore geometry in different, unique ways. Some are 2d paintings or drawings, some are 3d sculptures!

What shapes can you see in the artworks?

Can you see any tessellating patterns or symmetry?

What could your own geometric art look like?

Zarina Hashmi
Untitled (2017)
Tate

© Zarina Hashmi

Saloua Raouda Choucair
Poem (1963–5)
Tate

© Saloua Raouda Choucair Foundation

Anwar Jalal Shemza
Composition in Red and Green, Squares and Circles (1963)
Tate

© reserved

Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian
Untitled (1976)
Tate

© Estate of Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian

Kazimir Malevich
Dynamic Suprematism (1915 or 1916)
Tate

Nabil Nahas
Eclypse (1978)
Tate

© reserved

Bridget Riley
Blaze (1964)
Tate

© Bridget Riley 2020. All rights reserved.

Saloua Raouda Choucair
Composition in Blue Module (1947–51)
Tate

© Saloua Raouda Choucair Foundation

Peter Randall-Page
A Place of One’s Own (1994)
Tate

© Peter Randall-Page

Bridget Riley
Coloured Greys III (1972)
Tate

© Bridget Riley 2020. All rights reserved.

Wassily Kandinsky
Swinging (1925)
Tate

Mauro Kunst
Red, Green and Silver (1970)
Tate

© Mauro Kunst

Lygia Clark
Planes on Modulated Surface (Study) (61) (1957)
Tate

© reserved

Rasheed Araeen - Zero To Infinity

An artist fascinated by shapes and symmetry is Rasheed Araeen.

His sculpture Zero to Infinity is made up of lots of wooden cubes that start off as a big, symmetrical square that looks quite fixed.

But Rasheed invites people into the gallery to work together to touch, move, shift and stack the cubes into something new.

The piece is called Zero To Infinity because zero is just the start, and infinity represents the ENDLESS number of forms we could create with his cubes.

By working together, we break the symmetry and the artwork goes on and on and on. Pretty cool hey?!

Photo © Tate (Lucy Dawkins)

Photo © Tate (Lucy Green)

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