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Needles

Artist Larry Poons (American, b.1937)

Date1972

MediumMixed media on canvas

DimensionsOverall: 115 x 254 in. (292.1 x 645.2 cm)

ClassificationsContemporary art

Credit LineGift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.

Object number77.418

Terms

Abstract
Yellow
Pink
Blue
Multi
Abstract

Collections

Modern and Contemporary

On View

Not on view

DescriptionLarge mixed media on canvas painting. It is an abstact painting, primarily mustard-colored, of dripped paint. The paint is applied thickly over the majority of the painting. At the top edge, areas of the canvas is visible.

Label TextLarry Poons American, b. 1937 Needles, 1972 Mixed media on canvas In the mid-1960s, Larry Poons began to explore the material qualities of paint by pouring and even throwing it onto his canvases. The surface of Needles consists of thick streaks and built-up layers of paint, though the right edge of the canvas is highly thinned. In 1972, art critic Michael Fried referred to Poons’s heavily encrusted paintings as “elephant skin,” suggesting how looking at his work activates the sense of touch. Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. 77.418