Paintings made in many shapes have been tried some have been found more interesting and useful than others. There is one shape of a painting that, to my knowledge, has not been investigated - that is what I call a corner painting. The idea is to make the painting in two parts, not necessarily identical in dimension, connected with a piano-type hinge. The painting may be hung in a corner of any angle in a room.

Corners sometimes pose problems in the home. In exhibitions and museums they are a notorious nuisance. Corner paintings would provide a practical way of taking advantage of unavoidable corners. They also pose interesting visual problems for the artist for they are, in a way, simple transformables. The beholder sees an object that changes appreciably in appearance as his viewing position is changed within the angle of the corner painting.

In Fig. 1 is shown a geometrical composition as seen when the corner painting is viewed opened flat. The appearance of the painting when the beholder faces the painting in a 90° corner is shown in Fig. 2, and in Figs. 3 (a) and 3 (b) are shown the left and right parts of the painting as seen when looking at them at right angles to the parts. The application of perspective and of optically illusory effects to corner paintings to obtain satisfying visual experiences poses a challenge to the artist.

In the past, murals have been painted around corners. Recently, after thinking about corner paintings, I saw at the Hotel de la Poste in Sully sur Loire, France, a mural consisting of a cupboard with the left hand door painted, as though open, on the wall at a right angle to the wall on which the main part of the cupboard was painted. This is, however, not the way I think of taking advantage of corners for paintings.

© Frank Malina & Leonardo/Olats