THE MODULAR TRIANGULAR SYSTEM
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Historical Background

"The Modular Triangular System" is an innovative art style that formulates the use of triangles instead of rectangles to paint on. The seminal idea began thousands of years ago before Columbus discovered the New World. The principal indigenous Indians from the Caribbean, the Taino, carved out tiny-triangular-shaped stones known as Zemis (also spelled Cemi). They worshipped these objects more than gold. But with the early extinction of the Taino by explorers, the rectangle quickly replaced this triangular aesthetic of the Caribbean. Thus the Zemi ceased to evolve into the mainstream of World Art in modernistic terms.

500 years later Caribbean artist Roy Lawaetz transforms the Taino's concept for triangles of stone into a complex syntax for picture-making on canvas. This art practice has taken his works to places far away from his native island, St. Croix, Virgin Islands. His unique canvases recognize the Taino Zemi heritage as a capable vehicle to form an alternative path towards Art.

In "The Modular Triangular System" art book he explains how and why in a 15 page bilingual (English & Spanish) artist's essay.

Copyright © 2001-2003 "The Modular Triangular System" by Roy Lawaetz. All Rights Reserved. mts@roylawaetz.com