When Gertrude Stein first became acquainted with Picasso in Paris around 1905, he asked her to obtain American comic strips for him. He was studying Japanese prints at the time, but found in comic strips clear examples of the interface and interval that interested him so much. It was at this same period that he began the study of African
tribal art. • Most tribal art is hard-edge art. It is art of sharp contrasts, sudden juxtapositions. So is children s art. A film-maker in Canada provided young children with the means to make animated films. The result was nearly two hundred films of Wham! Bang! With figures appearing, disappearing. There were no characters in the ordinary sense; no gradations, no chiaroscuro; just abrupt encounters a la Batman of hard-edge, cartoon art. • Contemporary fashion is full of hard-edge design. The experience it evokes is not visual: it is tactile. It is full of abrupt encounters, sudden interfaces. It is the World of Happenings where surfaces and events grind against each other, creating
new forms, much as the action of dialogue creates new insights. To a large extent, Hard-Edge re-emerged as a visual mode because it was definite, a reaction to the expressionist modes that preceded it. Pop and Op were related, both using colors and forms contained by hard, definite lines. In emphasizing the periphery of forms, Hard-Edge reemphasized the tactile.