Detail View

Date: 1970

Dimensions: image: 9 x 9 in. (22.9 x 22.9 cm) sheet: 13 3/8 x 12 in. (34 x 30.5 cm)

Medium: screenprint

Credit Line: Director's Fund Purchase

Label Text: Carl Schmalz worked primarily in watercolor, painting landscapes and still lifes. This is a rare screenprint by the Ann Arbor-born artist. Though it is an abstraction, the title references a view at the molecular level. Specialized microscopes can observe electron diffraction patterns: waves that ripple in broadening concentric circles. Scientists can study matter by firing electrons at a sample and observing materials’ signature patterns, such as this image of CCMV-AuNP (gold nanoparticles encapsulated by a virus). With advanced degrees from Harvard, Schmalz taught art and art history at Bowdoin College and Amherst College.