Description:

Ida Rittenberg Kohlmeyer (American/New Orleans, 1912-1997), "Circus Series 22A", 1978, mixed media on canvas, signed and dated lower right, "'Ida Kohlmeyer: Thirty Years', The Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, NC" exhibition label en verso, 70 1/2 in. x 74 in., original slat frame. Provenance: Private Collection, New York, acquired from the artist. Exh.: Ida Kohlmeyer: Thirty Years, The Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, NC, 1984-1985, and listed in the accompanying catalogue, no. 40, p. 81, no. 40, p. 81. Note: By the mid-1970s, Ida Kohlmeyer had adopted the grid form that would dominate the paintings of her Clusters series. This series represents the first style that was solely identified with the artist and consists of a grid of variously colored rectangular elements, similar in shape and size, surrounded by a white border. The Clusters afforded Kohlmeyer the opportunity to experiment within her grid with automatic drawing, an element which would define the series and the artist as much as her characteristic use of color. The series drew critical acclaim for Kohlmeyer, and, in her words, embodied my whole voyage through years of searching for a personal visual statement. By the late 1970s, Kohlmeyer transitioned into a sequence of Clusters titled the Circus paintings. With the Circus paintings, Kohlmeyer multiplied the number of symbols exponentially, greatly increasing the color saturation and heightening the comparison of her canvases to a unique, pictorial language. The monumental Circus work offered here from 1978 is an example of how each rectangle reduced in size becomes a miniature painting unto itself that interacts with the others within the grid to create an overall composition which lends itself to contemplation rather than interpretation. Ref.: Plante, Michael. Ida Kohlmeyer: Systems of Color. New York: Hudson Hills Press, 2004. Kessler, Jane. Ida Kohlmeyer: Thirty Years. Charlotte, NC: The Mint Museum, 1983.

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November 21, 2015 10:00 AM CST
New Orleans, LA, US

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