Virtual ExhibitsTitle:
PAINTING 1952
Artist:
McNeil, George (1908-1995)
Medium:
Oil on Paperboard
Date:
1952
Object ID:
X1965.06.10
Description:
In 1936 he became one of the founding members of the American Abstract Artists group and from 1935 worked in the Mural and Easel section of the Works Progress Administration Federal Art Project.
The built up surface of this painting is an accumulated layering of washes, glazes and scumbled brushstrokes. The central passage is a rectilinear semicircle of light greys with a strong vertical movement, made preeminent in contrast to the background of dark blue washes that define the positive areas by editing everything else out. The gray value range of the main form is broad, starting very light and running to true grey with other grays falling somewhere in the middle. Between the broader areas of form where edges meet, the successive layers of color are revealed- bits of cadmium red, orange ochres, acidic greens with pieces of blues and purple. Accenting the cool, neutral colors, these small revelations heighten the sense that the picture plane is made up of blocks of color shifting into one another.
The built up surface of this painting is an accumulated layering of washes, glazes and scumbled brushstrokes. The central passage is a rectilinear semicircle of light greys with a strong vertical movement, made preeminent in contrast to the background of dark blue washes that define the positive areas by editing everything else out. The gray value range of the main form is broad, starting very light and running to true grey with other grays falling somewhere in the middle. Between the broader areas of form where edges meet, the successive layers of color are revealed- bits of cadmium red, orange ochres, acidic greens with pieces of blues and purple. Accenting the cool, neutral colors, these small revelations heighten the sense that the picture plane is made up of blocks of color shifting into one another.
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Painting, Painting 1952, X1965.06.10
Painting, Painting 1952, X1965.06.10
