Painting - Rotated Triangle and Reflections

Description:

Plane figures of the same size and shape can be moved about in several ways and preserve their size and form. Such congruent transformations, as they are called, are combinations of rotations about a point or a line, reflections about a line, or translations in which the figure moves about the plane but the directions of the sides is unchanged.

This painting, which closely follows a diagram from a book by H. S. M. Coxeter, illustrates two properties of congruent transformations. First, a transformation in which only one point remains unchanged is a rotation. In the figure, the triangle PQR passes through a congruent transformation into the triangle PQ'R'. Suppose that the transformation consisted of a reflection. Then triangle PQR could be rotated about the line m to another triangle, PRR[1]. However, these two triangles have a line, and not simply a point, in common. Coxeter went on to argue that any congruent transformation can be constructed as the product of reflections, the number of which can be reduced to three.

In the painting, as in the diagram, there are three congruent triangles. One light blue and gray triangle rotates into another light blue triangle above it to the right (the axis of rotation is perpendicular to the painting). The blue and blue-gray triangle is a rotation of the first triangle about the axis m, and a reflection of the other. The background is in two shades of gray, divided by this line of rotation.

The painting is #73 in the series and signed: CJ70. It has a metal frame.

Reference: H. S. M. Coxeter, The Real Projective Plane, p. 153.

Date Made: 1970

Painter: Johnson, Crockett

Location: Currently not on view

See more items in: Medicine and Science: Mathematics, Science & Mathematics, Crockett Johnson, Art

Exhibition:

Exhibition Location:

Credit Line: Ruth Krauss in memory of Crockett Johnson

Data Source: National Museum of American History

Id Number: 1979.1093.47Catalog Number: 1979.1093.47Accession Number: 1979.1093

Object Name: painting

Physical Description: masonite (substrate material)metal (frame material)Measurements: overall: 61.5 cm x 77 cm x 2.5 cm; 24 3/16 in x 30 5/16 in x in

Guid: http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746a5-29a5-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa

Record Id: nmah_694671

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