Fusing a large, vertical landscape with particulate geometrical forms, John Sennhauser's work demonstrates the artist's fondness for the tension between stable spaces and animated movement. The result is strikingly dynamic - robotic yet organic, structural yet spindly - and full of reverberating motion.

Though born and educated in Switzerland, Sennhauser is largely an American artist, having moved to New York, in 1928 and studied at the Cooper Union Art School. There, his progressive experimentation with non-objective forms garnered much attention. This painting from 1947, the first in the series Colorforms in Colorspace, is an iconic example of Sennhauser's mature works. Through such avant-garde geometric abstraction, the artist helped pave the way for the American abstract expressionist movement of the 1950s. He joined the Abstract American Artists in 1945 and held leadership positions in the organization until 1952.

Excerpt from

DMA label copy (1989.25), n.d.

• John Sennhauser, Colorforms in Colorspace #2, 1947
  See the second painting in this series through the New Britain Museum of American Art's online collection.
• John Sennhauser at the San Diego Museum of Art
  Look at five more works that illustrate this artist's stylistic range between 1939 and 1976.