untitled (fan)

Barbara Schwartz

1948–2006

untitled (fan), 1982

Where object was made: United States

Material/technique: cast paper; wire; pigment

Dimensions:
Object Length/Width/Depth (Length x Width x Depth): 38.1 x 40.64 x 3.81 cm
Object Length/Width/Depth (Length x Width x Depth): 16 x 15 x 1 1/2 in

Credit line: The Helen Foresman Spencer Museum of Art, The University of Kansas, The Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection: Fifty Works for Fifty States, a joint initiative of the Trustees of the Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection and the National Gallery of Art, with generous support of the National Endowment for the Arts and the Institute of Museum and Library Services

Accession number: 2009.0075

Not on display

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Label texts

Exhibition Label: "NetWorks: Art and Artists from the Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection," Mar-2011, Susan Earle, Stephen Goddard, and SMA Interns In one of the few statements about Schwartz's artistic approach we can read that she “sought to vitalize abstract painting by making it more dimensional and also linking it to non-Western decorative traditions.” However true this may be, it may be more fruitful to consider what we see here. Is this form inspired by a ginkgo leaf, a painted fan, or a Δ (Delta) and all the symbolism that goes with it? Is that a constellation on one side and a river on the other? Are there better questions to ask, or is it enough that the work asks us these questions?