The Variations on a Rhythm series—28 pictures executed from 1930 to 1936—marked an important stage in Raymond Jonson’s lengthy and methodical exploration of nonobjective art. Variations on a Rhythm—U is typical of the works in the sequence and exemplifies Jonson’s ongoing efforts to transform familiar, conventional symbols, such as numbers and letters, into pure abstractions. Here Jonson has used the letter U to generate numerous related forms that resonate with its basic shape. The visual rhythm created by these rhyming forms was integral to Jonson’s efforts to discover the “unifying principle” in art. In this work the crisp, precisely defined elements are suggestive of machinery. Jonson intended that the color of each painting in the Variations on a Rhythm series would deepen its emotional impact.

A pioneer in American abstract painting, Raymond Jonson studied at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts before attending the Art Institute of Chicago. He was deeply influenced by the European avant-garde art and the proto-abstractions of the American painter Arthur Dove. In 1924 he became disillusioned with urban life and moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he devoted himself to painting, organizing exhibitions, and teaching at the University of New Mexico at Albuquerque. Throughout the 1920s Jonson produced semiabstract views of the New Mexico landscape before embarking on his exploration of purer abstract forms in the Variations on a Rhythm works.