Description
Grace Hartigan, born in Newark, New Jersey, received training in mechanical drawing at the Newark College of Engineering and was employed during World War II as a drafting technician. In 1946 Hartigan moved to Manhattan and was invited to join The Club, a group organized in 1949 by Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline, Jack Tworkov, and other New York School artists. As Hartigan commented: "Abstract Expressionism, so called, was born in New York, created in New York and deals with the energy of New York."(1) Hartigan's early painting Grand Street Brides, completed in 1954, was inspired by a store-window display of mannequins in wedding gowns, and by the court scenes of Goya and Velazquez, revealing Hartigan's interest in the history of art and the contemporary visual world. Between 1954 and 1958 she also painted a series of "city life" scenes based on the Lower East Side. Nelson Rockefeller acquired one of these, City Life, painted in 1956. Calling herself a "process artist," Hartigan allows her work to unfold without a preconceived plan. "The painting begins to talk to you, and it begins to dictate. You become almost a medium."(2) Hartigan has always been closely associated with poets, both as friends and as inspiration for her work. The-The #1 is titled after the last line of a poem by Wallace Stevens, "The Man on the Dump": "Where was it one first heard the truth? The the."(3) This large-scale, complex work contains rich reds and oranges contrasted with blue, gray, and green. Like many of Hartigan's abstract works, The-The #1 is sprinkled with suggestions of recognizable forms and anatomical details. Lushly colored rounded forms and exuberant gestures are highlighted by heavy black lines. Filled with rich color and vibrant gestures, The-The #1 exemplifies Hartigan's artistic credo: "I believe in beautiful drawing, in elegance, in luminous color and light".(4) J.F. (1). Stephen Westfall, "Then and Now: Six of the New York School Look Back," Art in America (June 1985): 118. (2). Grace Hartigan, Art at the Plaza Lecture Series, Empire State Plaza, Albany, New York, lecture delivered April 14, 1980. (3). Ibid. (4). Westfall, "Then and Now," p. 118.
Details
- Work Date:
- 1962
- Location:
- Corning Tower Concourse Lobby
- Dimensions:
- 6'-9" x 9'-7 1/2"
- Medium:
- Oil on canvas