'Particles and Waves: Southern California Abstraction and Science, 1945-1990', featuring Channa Horwitz at Palm Springs Art Museum, CA, USA

4 October 2024

'Particles and Waves', on view at Palm Springs Art Museum from 14 September 2024 to 24 February 2025, examines how concepts and technologies from the realms of advanced scientific research impacted the development of abstract (or non-figurative) styles of artwork in postwar Southern California.

The exhibition unites several generations of artists working in diverse materials and styles to examine how subfields of scientific investigation inspired a range of non-figurative artworks by practitioners concerned with light, energy, motion, and time. By drawing interdisciplinary connections between the work of early abstractionists and contemporary practitioners, the exhibition considers abstract artwork from Southern California in a new way.

Included in the show are two works from Channa Horwitz series of Sonakinatography series of graph paper drawings. In the late 1960s, Horwitz arrived upon a notation system to track movement and time visually which she termed “Sonakinatography” meaning sound—motion—notation. While arguably her best known body of work, graphically they introduce a visual system through which Horwitz created a series of unique compositions, conceptually and visually complex graphic forms that progress linearly, and that were also open to performative or installation interpretation. These drawings can be read as scores, which function as instructions for musical compositions, dance performances, or spatial installations.