Name/Title
Untitled (Plaster Positive)Entry/Object ID
2019.23Description
Brown frame with textured white plaster-like material (hydrocal) insideArtwork Details
Medium
Hydrocal in walnut frameContext
Anthony Pearson’s many distinct bodies of work take cues from the photographic process as a means to investigate what the artist sees as the alchemical potential of different materials. Pearson’s work often creates a delay between perceiving and understanding as viewers are confronted with a striking material disconnect: clay appears as bronze, drawings appears as photographs, and cement appears as paint. Like the photographic apparatus, Pearson explores the way changes in light affect our perception and nuance hidden potential in the materials he uses. Similar to Light and Space artists, a West Coast Minimalist movement concerned with how shape and light affected environment and perception, Pearson opposes an ethos of slow-making and rootedness.
Untitled (Plaster Positive) and (Untitled Embedment) both make distinctive use of Hydrocal, which, in the former creates an intricate, almost geometrical texture reminiscent of Seurat’s pointillism, while in the latter, the material takes an almost paint-like fluidity. Says Pearson, “The act of pouring paintings with buckets of cement is an experience that is governed by the gravitational weight, viscosity, and earth quality of the material itself, which as a drive of its own.” These works blur the line between painting and sculpture, with the artist referring to them as surfaces or reliefs.Acquisition
Accession
2019.17-25Source or Donor
Julie Campbell, Shane CampbellAcquisition Method
GiftCredit Line
Gift of Julie and Shane CampbellInscription/Signature/Marks
Type
InscriptionTranscription
AP 13Lexicon
Nomenclature 4.0
Nomenclature Class
ArtNomenclature Category
Category 08: Communication ObjectsGetty AAT
Concept
MinimalHierarchy Name
Styles and Periods (hierarchy name)Facet
Styles and Periods FacetLOC Thesaurus for Graphic Materials
Plaster workDimensions
Height
24-1/2 inWidth
18-1/2 inDepth
2 inDimension Notes
62.07 cm. x 46.83 cm. x 5.08 cm.