drawing on small rectangle of paper with tilted purple square at center featuring an abstracted portrait; the text “free!” in white set within a red oblong shape overlaps the purple square at TL; small green rectangle floats over BRQ of purple square; abstracted face in ULC and to right center of purple square; two green “peaks” at URC; variety of shapes and lines make up rest of composition in green, yellow, red, blue, purple, and black pigments; there is a ½” strip at R edge of paper that is white save four distinct, vertically-oriented green rectangles; frame backing has “James Castle, jca 0674.20, CA 26219” written in black ink at TLC; printed label with artist name, title, medium, and dimensions affixed to backing along with “Knoedler & Company” label, framers label, a red ticket marked “sold,” and a side from an old ice cream box marked, “Home Dairies vanilla ice cream”

Copyright %C2%A9 2018 James Castle Collection and Archive LP%2C All rights reserved.

Untitled (Free!), after 1960

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Castle’s fascination with text and commercial advertising included a fondness for isolating single words within a composition. Here, he highlights a common marketing refrain—Free!—an enticement that Castle likely chose for both formal and conceptual reasons. With the word centered on the sheet, Castle adds an unusual compositional structure, a fractured, Cubist-like pictorial space that mimics the effect of a kaleidoscope, an optical instrument that alters visual images into abstract geometric arrangements of colored elements. Castle was intrigued by the kaleidoscope from childhood, and, according to family members, possessed several.

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Details
Title
Untitled (Free!)
Artist Life
1899–1977
Role
Artist
Accession Number
2014.141.4
Provenance
(Knoedler Gallery, New York, until c. 2006; sold to Mersky); Robert B. Mersky, Minneapolis; given to MIA, 2014
Curator Approved

This record is from historic documentation and may not have been reviewed by a curator, so may be inaccurate or incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. If you notice a mistake or have additional information about this object, please email collectionsdata@artsmia.org.

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drawing on small rectangle of paper with tilted purple square at center featuring an abstracted portrait; the text “free!” in white set within a red oblong shape overlaps the purple square at TL; small green rectangle floats over BRQ of purple square; abstracted face in ULC and to right center of purple square; two green “peaks” at URC; variety of shapes and lines make up rest of composition in green, yellow, red, blue, purple, and black pigments; there is a ½” strip at R edge of paper that is white save four distinct, vertically-oriented green rectangles; frame backing has “James Castle, jca 0674.20, CA 26219” written in black ink at TLC; printed label with artist name, title, medium, and dimensions affixed to backing along with “Knoedler & Company” label, framers label, a red ticket marked “sold,” and a side from an old ice cream box marked, “Home Dairies vanilla ice cream”

Copyright © 2018 James Castle Collection and Archive LP, All rights reserved.

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