January 24, 2010

A New Rug Hooking Project: Pink Triangles, with an Homage to Mary Heilman



With this new project, I am back to straight line geometry after the organic curves of Roundabout and the geometric curves of Swing. This 12 inch square has lopped off corners, a design that could come from Ellsworth Kelly.




The slightly wacky color – somber blacks with hot pink – is inspired by the work of Mary Heilman. I've admired her exuberant, off kilter abstraction for many years; last winter the New Museum of Contemporary Art in NYC mounted a exciting retrospective called "Mary Heilman: To Be Someone". Her paintings have a fresh, direct energy that makes simple geometries playful and personal. I would place her in my little category of "funky minimalism", along with Richard Tuttle. There's a similar sense of freedom from restraint, yet working with basics, in both artists. I love Heilman's use of unconventional color, especially pink, which appears in many of her paintings, sometimes paired with black. She's given us, in Guitar, a sassy feminist ("I enjoy being a girl"?) take on the high-art seriousness of abstraction. She has an inventive way of using multiple panels to make an image, as in Chartreuse. In all her work, a sure and juicy brush paints emotional life into geometry.



Mary Heilman, Guitar, 1979, acrylic on canvas, 30 x 40 inches


Heilman, Chartreuse, 1987, acrylic and watercolor on wood panel, diptych: 62 x 66 inches


Heilman, Little Three for Two: Red, Yellow, Blue, 1976, acrylic on canvas, 13 1/2 x 24 inches

3 comments:

  1. I look forward to seeing the reaching pinks hooked. and it's great to see these Heilmans here, to be reminded of her vision along with so many others you've brought up.

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  2. thanks for being my docent today - I feel like I got to visit a museum before heading to work! Looking forward to checking back to see your progess...

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  3. I'm glad you're both looking forward to progress, as am I, since a color sketch ends up being so very different from hooked wool. And yes, rappel, hurrah to seeing Heilman alongside other painters.

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