Description:
Abstract composition, white overall, with hints of red; thin black line runs horizontally throught the center of canvas.
Label Text:
During his time as a professor at Mount Holyoke College, Edward Corbett began a monochromatic series of paintings titled “Paintings for Puritans,” which consisted of white-on-white canvases that evidence the artist’s proclivity toward subtle color. Indeed, Corbett’s technique in this early painting became critical in later work, where deep layers of white are combined with other colors.
In 1962, Corbett was part of MoMA’s hugely significant "Fifteen Americans" exhibit alongside Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko. First enamoured with landscape paintings, the artist gradually abstracted his compositions to nothing more than a horizon line, and in his “Paintings for Puritans” series, to simple surfaces and subtle effects. Despite the shock of viewers to his 1956 New York exhibition of “Paintings for Puritans,” who were accustomed to the bold and colorful works of then popular Action Painters, Corbett remained faithful in his layered minimal style. (SSW)
Tags:
abstract; Christianity; emotion; humor; nonrepresentational art; religion; satire; monochrome Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=MH+1960.206.I%28b%29.PI |
