catenary

new word to me

Definition of catenary:
“the curve theoretically assumed by a perfectly flexible and inextensible cord of uniform density and cross section hanging freely from two fixed points. …It is identical to the graph of a hyperbolic cosine.” (answers.com)

Where I ran across it:
NYT art review, “Jasper Johns Shows his True Color” by Roberta Smith published February 8, 2008, about the exhibition, “Jasper Johns: Gray” at the Met in New York.

“...It ranges from Mr. Johns’s earliest chalkboardlike gray paintings of the late 1950s, with their morose, isolated objects, to his latest “Catenary” paintings, which actually depict chalkboards hung with fragile curves of white string that, some suggest, represent the human life span...”

My two cents:
Full disclosure here: maybe if I had done better in math class I would know this word, catenary. But I barely made it through Geometry and Algebra II, and Trig was undeniably beyond my ken. Still, those mathematical bywords like sine, cosine, and hyperbola are all somehow familiar, while catenary is total news to me. Thank you, Jasper Johns for the tutorial. Better living through art…