Anna Campbell Bliss

American
(1925–2015)

Spectrum Squared
1973

Serigraph
40.75 x 40 x 0.875 in.
Museum Purchase with the Charter Member Endowment Fund
2010.13

Bliss’ background in mathematics inspired her to use her artwork to connect color, movement, science, and nature. An avid computer programmer, Bliss became a pioneer in the realm of computer-generated artwork. She often paired her work on computers with screenprinting, both of which she believed to be invaluable in her explorations of color because the technologies allowed her to mix colors with exactness. Until her death in 2015, Bliss took on several commissions for local Utah institutions, such as the Utah State Capitol Building, the University of Utah Cowles Mathematics Building, and the Salt Lake City International Airport. Bliss and her husband are credited with helping grow the Utah art scene and fostering what many described as a “family” of local artists, architects, and designers.

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This object has the following keywords:

• blue
• geometric abstraction
• green
• Op art - Refers to the international art movement that flourished in Europe and America in the mid-1960s. The style is charcterized by the careful manipulation of bold, sharply contrasting shapes and colors in order to create vitural movement, vibration, or chromatic tension.
• optical illusion - Deceptive visual phenomena induced by the refraction of light as it passes through one substance to another or by atmospheric conditions that manipulate light rays.
• red
• squares
• triangles

This object was included in the following exhibitions:

• ARTsySTEM: The Changing Climates of the Arts and Sciences , 3/19/2015 - 8/1/2015
• Quantitative Methods in the Arts , 3/18/2016 - 10/22/2016
• Women, Surrealism, and Abstraction , 8/25/2020 - 7/9/2022

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