ART–SYS–AUE
Tauba Auerbach
Systemic Construction
Perception as Structure
ART–SYS–AUE
Perception as Structure
Tauba Auerbach
Index Code:
ART–SYS–AUE
Origin:
San Francisco, USA
Field Notes:
Folding as system • Perception under transformation • Surface moving between dimensions
Defining Moment:
The Fold paintings established flatness and volume as a single perceptual structure.

Tauba Auerbach

(
b. 1981
 )
tow-buh ow-er-bok

Tauba Auerbach built a world where systems become perceptual fields. Folding, weaving, typography, and mathematical structures translate between surface, volume, and information. In their work, perception operates as a structure under transformation.

How does perception become structure here?

Auerbach’s work organizes perception through systems of translation. Folds, dots, woven surfaces, and typographic forms shift between flatness, volume, and information.

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This produces a field where surface is never only image. Structure appears through the passage between dimensions, allowing material and perception to reorganize one another.

Position

Perception as Interface

The work activates through viewing conditions rather than fixed form. Movement, position, distance, or duration alters what is perceived. Vision becomes an interface rather than a passive act.

In Tauba Auerbach’s work, structure appears where perception is transformed through systems of material and dimensional translation.
Hard Systems
Form is governed by rigid rules, limits, and non-negotiable constraints.
Surface & Structure
Surface and structure operate as a unified, interdependent system.

Systemic Construction

Builds structure through interlocking rules, flows, and functional hierarchies.
Structure
Structure holds the work through rules, joins, and controlled relationships between parts.
Material
Material behavior governs form through weight, resistance, and constraint.
Space
Space is structured through openings, intervals, and boundary conditions.
Art
Form operates as a site for material, perceptual, and conceptual inquiry.
Image Credits
Hide Image Credits

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  1. Tauba Auerbach in their studio, New York, 2023. Published in T: The New York Times Style Magazine, March 16, 2023. Courtesy The New York Times Style Magazine.
  2. Installation view, Tauba Auerbach: Tetrachromat, WIELS, Brussels, March 22–June 2, 2013. Curated by Solveig Øvstebø. Images courtesy of the artist and WIELS, Brussels. Photo © Filip Vanzieleghem.
  3. Installation view, Tauba Auerbach: S v Z, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, December 18, 2021–March 27, 2022. © Tauba Auerbach. Photo © Matthew Millman. Courtesy SFMOMA.
  4. Tauba Auerbach, Non-Invasive Procedure, 2018. Adjustable height medical table, light box, three lenses with stainless steel supports, polarized film, plastic and glass, 69 1/2 × 48 × 95 in (176.5 × 121.9 × 241.3 cm). © Tauba Auerbach. Photo © Steven Probert. Courtesy the artist and Paula Cooper Gallery, New York.
  5. Installation view, Tauba Auerbach: Projective Instrument, Paula Cooper Gallery, New York, January 9–February 13, 2016. © Tauba Auerbach. Photo © Steven Probert. Courtesy Paula Cooper Gallery, New York.
  6. Tauba Auerbach, Grain – Peano Neume, 2018. Acrylic on canvas, 90 × 48 in (228.6 × 121.9 cm). © Tauba Auerbach. Photo © Steven Probert. Courtesy Paula Cooper Gallery, New York.
  7. Installation view, Tauba Auerbach: TIDE, Fridericianum, Kassel, July 15, 2023–January 14, 2024. © Tauba Auerbach. Photo © Andrea Rossetti. Courtesy documenta und Museum Fridericianum gGmbH.
  8. Installation view, Tauba Auerbach: Tetrachromat, Bergen Kunsthall, Norway, 2011. Fold paintings with RGB Colorspace Atlas Cubes (2011). Photo © Vegard Kleven. Courtesy the artist, Paula Cooper Gallery, New York and STANDARD (OSLO), Oslo.
  9. Installation view, Tauba Auerbach, venue and exhibition title to be verified. © Tauba Auerbach. Photo credit to be verified.
  10. Tauba Auerbach, Shadow Weave – Metamaterial/Slice Ray, 2013. Woven canvas on wooden stretcher, 60 × 45 in (152.4 × 114.3 cm). © Tauba Auerbach. Photo © Steven Probert. Courtesy Paula Cooper Gallery, New York.
  11. Cover: Installation view, Tauba Auerbach, Paula Cooper Gallery, New York. © Tauba Auerbach. Photo © Steven Probert. Courtesy the artist and Paula Cooper Gallery, New York.
  12. Portrait: Tauba Auerbach, The Gentlewoman, Autumn/Winter 2012. Photography by Benjamin Alexander Huseby. Styling by Hannes Hetta. Courtesy The Gentlewoman.

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Field Notes

Back to
The Atlas

By Structural Focus

Quiet Modernism relates practices through how form is organized rather than how it appears. Connections emerge through shared structural conditions — such as repetition, constraint, spatial organization, material behavior, or duration — even when outcomes differ.

A single grouping may reflect multiple overlapping structural concerns.
Gego
line as spatial mesh
Ruth Asawa
Suspension as structure

By Historical Lineage

Quiet Modernism traces historical relationships through movements, schools, influence, period, and shared cultural context. These links show where a practice sits within a broader lineage, even when the structural problems differ.
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A single grouping may reflect multiple overlapping structural concerns.