Abstraction.

%C2%A9 Estate of Grace Hartigan

Billboard, 1957

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Oil on canvasexpand_more

The Julia B. Bigelow Fundexpand_more  57.35

As a second generation Abstract Expressionist, Hartigan alternates between abstraction and figuration. The abstraction gives her work a powerful emotional and visual experience while the naturalistic subject matter serves as her inspiration. Hartigan describes her subjects as real, but not realistic.

Hartigan repeatedly drew from American advertising in her work because of its common imagery, two-dimensional structure, and bold stylistic simplifications. She began Billboard by arranging images from Life magazine into a collage, which she then used as her model. Here, we glimpse a smiling face above a tube of Ipana toothpaste, the neck of a wine bottle poised over a glass, a mold of lime Jell-O surrounded by fruit, and the keys of a piano. Of this melange of commercial and mechanical imagery she remarked, "I have found my subject, it concerns that which is vulgar and vital in American life, and possibilities of its transcendence into the beautiful."

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Audio

Grace Hartigan, Billboard (#948)
Details
Title
Billboard
Artist Life
1922 - 2008
Role
Painter
Accession Number
57.35
Curator Approved

This record has been reviewed by our curatorial staff but may be incomplete. These 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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Abstraction.

© Estate of Grace Hartigan