Painting - <I>Star Construction</I>
date: label: date made
content: 1970-1975
name: label: painter
content: Johnson, Crockett
notes: label: Description
content: Crockett Johnson's interest in regular polygons included the pentagram, or five-pointed star. The relation between the pentagon and the star is simple. If each side of a regular pentagon is extended, a regular five-pointed star results. Similarly, connecting each diagonal of a regular pentagon creates a regular five-pointed star. The star will have a pentagon in it, so the method is self-perpetuating.
label: Description
content: A method for a pentagram's construction in described in Book IV, Proposition II of Euclid's <I>Elements</I>, but the construction illustrated in this painting is the artist's own creation. It builds on the relationship between the sides of a regular five-pointed star and the golden ratio. As Crockett Johnson may have recalled from his earlier paintings, the five rectangles that surround the central pentagon of the star are golden, that is to say the ratio of the length of the two equal sides of the triangle to the side of the enclosed pentagon is (1 + √5) / 2. Hence one can construct the star by finding a line segment divided in this ratio. No figure by Crockett Johnson showing his construction has been found.
label: Description
content: The pentagram, executed appropriately enough in hues of gold, contrasts vividly with the purple background in <I>Star Construction</I>.
label: Description
content: The painting is #103 in the series. It is in oil or acrylic on pressed wood and has a gold-colored metal frame. The painting is unsigned and undated. Compare #46 (1979.1093.33) and #64 (1979.1093.39).
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Mathematics
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content: Science & Mathematics
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content: Crockett Johnson
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content: Art
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Ruth Krauss in memory of Crockett Johnson
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1979.1093.70
label: catalog number
content: 1979.1093.70
label: accession number
content: 1979.1093
objectType: label: Object Name
content: painting
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: masonite (substrate material)
label: Physical Description
content: metal (frame material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 51.5 cm x 60.5 cm x 2.5 cm; 20 1/4 in x 23 13/16 in x in