Bray

Artist Grace Hartigan (American, 1922 - 2008)

Date1958

MediumOil on canvas

DimensionsFramed: 61 1/2 × 51 3/4 inches (156.21 × 131.45 cm)
Unframed: 60 × 50 inches (152.4 × 127 cm)

Credit LineGift of William Inge

Object number61-76

Signedl.r.: "Hartigan 58"

On View

Not on view

Collections

Modern Art

Terms

DescriptionThin, scrubbed blue ground with irregular areas, outlined chiefly in black, of browns, yellow, gray, white, and cerise forming trefoil-like shape, right. Orange area bisected by dark blue, pointed form, bottom center. Dark green area upper left, overlaid by dark blue triangle. Two yellow ovals, center; predominantly white triangle, lower right. "44" form in cerise, center; black "D" form, upper right.Gallery Label

Gallery Label

Grace Hartigan defies categorization with her shifting styles between abstraction and representation, drawing constant inspiration from nature. Here, she used house paint brushes, creating broad areas of flat color heavily outlined in black. These forms, with their lack of gradation and heavy black contour lines, deliberately reject a sense of depth. Hartigan's work invites us to appreciate the painting as a dynamic and textured object rather than a literal representation of reality.

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