VEH
Artist
Nick Dawes
(British, born 1969)
CultureBritish
Date2018
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions59 1/16 × 81 in. (150 × 205.7 cm)
Credit LineMuseum purchase
Object number2018.34
Not on view
Label TextNick Dawes
British, b. 1969
VEH, 2018
Oil on canvas
What does Britain’s The Highway Code have to do with painting? For artist Nick Dawes, a great deal. He uses codes and acronyms from the guide as a starting point for his painterly style. By starting with text, he connects the notion that language and works are complex structures. The title of his piece, VEH, is an abbreviation for vehicle. His image is a visual interpretation of an intricate machine with easily visible and not so visible layered parts. Dawes’s work is similar as it contains both full and empty spaces with hints of bright color.
Dawes dilutes the oil paint, pouring it over an unprimed canvas. The colors bleed into
each other, creating shadows of early coats under the newer ones. The artist draws
from twentieth-century painting styles Abstract Expressionism and Color Field. His mark reaffirms the flat surface of the canvas with colors symbolizing the ideas of transcendence and infinity. Helen Frankenthaler, Morris Louis, and Jules Olitski were pioneers of these movements. Find their works on view.
Museum purchase 2018.34ProvenanceArtist; purchased by the Chrysler from the artist via Galerie Kornfeld
19th century
