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Navigator Tape
Artist:
Thomas Downing
(American, 1928-1985)
Date: 1966
Medium: Acrylic on canvas
Dimensions:
Overall: 90 x 63 in. (228.6 x 160 cm)
Classification: Modern art
Credit Line: Gift of Mr. Marion F. Mecklenburg
Copyright: © Estate of Thomas Downing
Object number: 67.85.1
Terms
- Stripes
- Color
- Blue
- White
- Orange
- Green
- Purple
- Black
- Tan
- Abstract
- Washington Color Painters
In Collection(s)
Not on view
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.
Exhibition History"Three Hundred Years of American Art in the Chrysler Museum," Chrysler Museum at Norfolk, Va., March 1 - July 4, 1976.
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
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
Published References
Dennis 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.