Double Take

Edna Andrade is best known for her work of the 1960s and 1970s which present brilliant optical illusions in geometric abstractions that have the playful power to 'upset the eye.' Well-versed in modernist theories of color and pattern but often inspired by nature, Andrade strove for an extraordinarily precise quality of execution in her abstractions. Despite the technically rigorous process that went into works like "Double Take," the resulting images move, vibrate and seem charged with electricity. This living quality connected her practice with art of the past and something deep within the consciousness of humanity. She wrote, "Artists have always used the pure and powerful archetypes: the circle, the triangle, the square, the pentagon and endowed them with symbolic content. I feel a kinship with the anonymous artisans of the past."