MANCHESTER - The Currier Museum of Art has acquired major
works by Pop artist Robert Indiana and abstract artists Frank Stella and Sam
Gilliam.
"These paintings build the Currier's collection of
post-World War II American art and provide our community with major examples by
artists who were instrumental in the development of American painting in the
second half of the 20th century," said Andrew Spahr, director of
collections and exhibitions.
The title of "Singerli, Variation I, 1968," which
belongs to Stella's "Protractor series," refers to an ancient city in
the Near East whose exterior wall formed an almost perfect circle. The
monumental paintings in this series are composed of carefully delineated bands
of overlapping color created using protractors and rulers, which help define
very specific geometric areas.
Stella first emerged on the national scene in the late 1950s
as an artist affiliated with Minimalism. He responded to the painterly
qualities of the Abstract Expressionists with works composed of bold, geometric
shapes that reinforce the flatness of the canvas and reveal almost no
brushwork.
"Decade Autoportrait 1963," is one of 10 paintings
that Indiana created in 1971 that reflect on his life in New York City in the
1960s. The painting typifies how Indiana created bold, graphic images using
words, numbers and the names of people and places that held special meaning for
him during his years living in lower Manhattan.
This painting will be featured in a focus exhibition opening
Nov. 27. Also on view will be the recently acquired "Decade
Portfolio." This collection is comprised of 10 prints Indiana made in 1971
representing flagship works he previously developed. The range of subjects
documents influences and national events that shaped Indiana's art of the
1960s; from art history and literature to the Civil Rights Movement and the
Vietnam War. In the 1960s, Indiana achieved worldwide acclaim for his iconic
image of the word "LOVE," which he incorporated in many of his
paintings, sculptures and silk screen prints, and which later became a
best-selling U.S. postage stamp. His name remains indelible tied to the Pop Art
movement of the 1960s and 1970s.
In Gilliam's "Rotunda Unwound (2005)," muslin
decorated in the bold "color field" style of painting hangs in folds
from the gallery wall. One of Gilliam's "Drape" paintings, its title
refers to its original installation, suspended from the ceiling of the Corcoran
Gallery of Art's rotunda in Washington, D.C, where Gilliam, known for had a
major retrospective in 2005.
It has a flexible, rather than fixed, form, and will
sometimes hang from two fixed points on the gallery wall as it is now, or from
one wall anchor, or the ceiling. Gilliam began his series of Drape paintings in
the late 1960s, creating works that are equal parts painting and sculpture.