In Time and Space
Artist
Lois Teicher
(American, born 1938)
Datec. 1980
MediumColored pencil and oil crayon on paper
DimensionsImage Size: 30 × 25 1/4 in. (76.2 × 64.1 cm)
Frame Size: 39 1/2 × 34 1/2 in. (100.3 × 87.6 cm)
ClassificationsDrawing
Credit LineGift of Compuware Corporation, 2015
Object numberUAC6302
DescriptionLois Teicher is a Detroit sculptor. She received her BFA from the College for Creative Studies in 1979, followed by her MFA from Eastern Michigan University in 1981. Teicher has created numerous site-specific commissions throughout Michigan, such as Box (2019) in Eastern Market in Detroit, Bench with Three Deep Seats (2002) at Ferris State University, and Functional Reference (1999) at the Dennos Museum Center in Traverse City, among many others. She is the recipient of several awards, including the Allied Art in Architecture Award of the Parks & Recreation Department in Detroit in 1987, the Mayoral Artist Award in Dearborn in 1999, and the Lifetime Achievement for Art award from the Hannan Foundation in 2017. Her work is featured in the collections of the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Maxine & Stuart Frankel Foundation for Art in Bloomfield Hills, the Flint Institute of Arts, the Dennos Museum Center in Traverse City, and the Saginaw Art Museum.As Teicher evolved as an artist, she “became aware of basic essential concepts, such as the existence of the Time/Space continuum, and the relationship between shape and space, space and shape.” The themes in her work stem directly from her “search to understand and connect to the universal.” While she primarily contemplates these concepts through 3-dimesional works, Teicher’s In Time and Space (1980) consists of colored pencil and oil crayon on paper. Consistent with her sculptures, this 2-dimensional image features geometric, abstract forms. A thin, black triangle resides in the center of the composition, framed by a white shape that appears to combine a trapezoid with a rectangle. The contour of this white shape is emphasized by bronze-colored and gray shapes on either side. Teicher’s use of oil crayon, paired with layers of colored pencil give the shapes on the opposing sides of the work texture, along with a blending of several different colors. Despite being a 2-dimensional work, In Time and Space does not look entirely flat. The black triangle is angled a bit, suggesting a subtle use of perspective and foreshortening; it looks as if the black triangle is a thin book, attempting to slide into a bookshelf between the larger books. Perhaps this black triangle is meant to symbolize the self as it attempts to situate itself between time and space, which may be symbolized by the bronze-colored and gray shapes. It encourages the viewer to see themselves as the black triangle and to ponder where and how their existence fits within the confines of time and space. Coined in 1906 by Albert Einstein’s college mathematics professor Hermann Minkowski, the concept of a space time continuum emphasized the “geometric qualities” of time and space: “Because space consists of 3 dimensions, and time is 1-dimesional, space-time must, therefore, be a 4-dimensional object. It is believed to be a ‘continuum’ because so far as we know, there are no missing points in space or instants in time, and both can be subdivided without any apparent limit in size or duration.” Teicher manages to beautifully capture the geometric qualities and the 4-dimensionality of time and space through the 2-dimensional geometric forms of In Time and Space.
Written by Angela Athnasios
Sources: loisteichersculptor.com, einstein.stanford.edu
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