TitleBoustrophedonic Recursive Combs
Artist
James Siena
(American, b. 1957)
Date2004
MediumGouache on paper
DimensionsUnframed: 8 1/2 x 11 in.
Framed: 15 x 17 1/4 x 1 3/8 in.
SubmissionNA diploma presentation, 2015
Credit LineNational Academy of Design, New York, NY
Object number2015.4
Label TextWorking across a diverse range of media that includes lithography, etching, woodcut, engraving, drawing, painting, and more recently, sculpture, James Siena employs self-imposed, rule-based linear abstractions known as "visual algorithms" that result in intensely concentrated and vibrantly-colored freehand geometric patterns. Beginning with an initial concept for an algorithm that is then meticulously repeated ad infinitum, the artist allows each self-generated system to shape the final outcome of his work, resulting in a striking juxtaposition of hard-edged abstraction with the gestural mark of the artist's hand. The title of the work, "Boustrophedonic Recursive Combs," references the Greek work Boustrophedon, meaning to turn like oxen in plowing, which denotes the writing of alternate lines in opposite directions employed by some ancient Etruscan and Greek writers. The title of the work recalls the systems that are found in every facet of life, and it speaks to the artist's diverse range of references that inform his abstractions. 
