Navigator Tape

Artist Thomas Downing (American, 1928-1985)

CultureAmerican

Date1966

MediumAcrylic on canvas

DimensionsOverall: 90 x 63 in. (228.6 x 160 cm)

SignedSigned on reverse: Thomas Downing

Credit LineGift of Mr. Marion F. Mecklenburg

Object number67.85.1

On View

Chrysler Museum of Art, Gallery 224

DescriptionAcrylic on canvas painting; in two parts. The design consists of broad stripes from lower left to upper right on the large segment and right to upper left on the top and smaller segment. Colors left to right: green, purple, white, tan, black, blue, white, orange.

Label TextThomas Downing American, 1928–1985 Navigator Tape, 1966 Acrylic on canvas In the mid-1960s, Washington color school painter Thomas Downing produced a series of monumental canvases with powerfully angled formats. As Downing explained, “The rectangle or balanced canvas had ceased to satisfy me,” and in works like Navigator Tape he freed his boldly striped imagery from the confines of the traditional frame. Here, the broad bands of color seem to vibrate and angle out into our own space. The painting’s beveled edges enhance this optical effect, suggesting we are seeing only a partial section of endless ribbons of color. Gift of Marion F. Mecklenberg 67.85.1 Exhibition History"Three Hundred Years of American Art in the Chrysler Museum," Chrysler Museum at Norfolk, Va., March 1 - July 4, 1976. Published ReferencesDennis R. Anderson, _Three Hundred Years of American Art in the Chrysler Museum_, exh. cat., Norfolk, Va., 1975, 238, ill. Claudine Humblet, _La Nouvelle Abstraction Américaine 1950-1970_ II (Switzerland: Skira/Seuil, 2003), 874.