Cercle et Carré and the International Spirit of Abstract Art

Image: Pierre Daura (American, born Spain, 1896–1976), designs for Cercle et Carré logo, 1929. Pen and ink on paper, 9 3/4 × 6 inches. Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia; Gift of Martha Randolph Daura. 2011.125.

September 18 – December 19, 2025

Hours: 9 a.m.–4:30 p.m. (Tuesday–Friday)
           1:30–4:30 p.m. (Saturday)

In Paris in 1929, Belgian painter and critic Michel Seuphor (1901–1999), Uruguayan painter and theorist Joaquín Torres-García (1874–1949), and Catalan-American artist Pierre Daura (1896–1976) founded an influential but short-lived artistic group named Circle and Square, after the geometric shapes fundamental to abstract art.  The group attracted more than eighty international artists including Jean Arp (1886–1966), Le Corbusier (1887–1965), Alexandra Exter (1882–1949), Wassily Kandinsky (1866–1944), Nadia Khodasevich Léger (1904–1987), Fernand Léger (1881–1955), and Sophie Täuber-Arp (1889–1943), among other famous and lesser-known personalities in the Parisian art world. Cercle et Carré and the International Spirit of Abstract Art showcases more than sixty works by thirty of Cercle et Carré’s participants, as well as outlines the formation of the group and its artistic legacy.

The exhibition was organized by the Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia, with the addition of works from the collection of the David Owsley Museum of Art. Generous support for the exhibition was provided by the Daura Foundation.