PH-143 (1955-H)

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PH-143 (1955-H)

United States, 1955
Paintings
Oil on canvas
113 1/4 × 154 in. (287.66 × 391.16 cm)
Anonymous gift, Los Angeles (M.91.89)
Currently on public view:
Broad Contemporary Art Museum, floor 3

Since gallery displays may change often, please contact us before you visit to make certain this item is on view.

Curator Notes

The strikingly colored flat fields and compressed space of Clyfford Still’s surfaces are a landmark achievement of the Abstract Expressionist movement in the United States, which is characterized by i...
The strikingly colored flat fields and compressed space of Clyfford Still’s surfaces are a landmark achievement of the Abstract Expressionist movement in the United States, which is characterized by its feverish pursuit of spiritual and personal expression. Using palette knives instead of brushes to apply thick layers of oil paint on a massive and soaring scale, Still imbued his paintings with a feeling of the sublime.
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Label

For this immersive painting, Clyfford Still applied paint directly to an untreated canvas with a palette knife, extending the ragged shapes that he called “lifelines” all the way to the work’s edges....
For this immersive painting, Clyfford Still applied paint directly to an untreated canvas with a palette knife, extending the ragged shapes that he called “lifelines” all the way to the work’s edges. The artist disliked frames, which he felt interrupt the illusion that the planes and ribbons of color continue to infinity. Still avoided the commercial art market for much of his career and preferred his work to be shown separately from other artists, making this painting a rare example of a lone work by Still in a public museum.

Wall label, 2021.
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Bibliography

  • Demetrion, James. T.  Clyfford Still: Paintings 1944-1960.  New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2001.