The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of July 9, 2026

A rectangular aquatint print on white paper depicts a grid of ten vertical rectangles arranged in two rows of five. The blocks alternate between saturated red and mottled pinkish-red in a checkerboard pattern. Starting with a red block at the top left, the bottom row begins with pink. The textured, pale rectangles contrast with the flat intensity of the solid red. Small handwritten inscriptions appear beneath the grid's lower edge.

Untitled

2024

Cornelia Thomson

(German, b. 1970)
Germany
aquatint
Sheet: 58.4 x 66 cm (23 x 26 in.)
Gift of Nancy F. and Joseph P. Keithley 2025.159.8
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

Cornelia Thomson's work often features rational, repeated shapes as a means of, in her words, imposing “stability, order and the ability to take control of my narrative since I was at the whim of cultural and political systems in the past.”

Description

Cornelia Thomson’s Silver Ratio Series is part of an ongoing project aimed at visualizing mathematical formulas. Each print is created precisely using a ruler and a copper plate, building upon Thomson’s continued experimentation with the golden ratio, a mathematical concept in which the ratio between two numbers equals approximately 1.618 and which is present in various proportions of the human body. Thomson uses her practice as a means of reflection on her experiences in former East Germany, including hardships of daily life and the contrast between these experiences and that of capitalism upon her move to the United States.
  • {{cite web|title=Untitled|url=false|author=Cornelia Thomson|year=2024|access-date=09 July 2026|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2025.159.8