Note Type
Cataloging NoteNote
Changed name from "Untitled" to "Blind" based on Portland Art Museum and LACMA records, but must confirm not Dining Room WindowNote Type
Cataloging NoteNote
Confirmed not "Dining Room Window" per Dropbox images, 11/19/25Note Type
Edition in Inventory (legacy)Note
1. Inventory: 1 unsigned proof 2. University of California, BerkeleyNote Type
RemarksNote
“In this, his final print of the Shut-In Suite, Harris illuminates the patterns found in everyday life. In this window blind and other such examples, his close observations celebrate quotidian beauty and geometry.”
—Mary Weaver Chapin, PhD, Senior Curator of Prints & Drawings at the Portland Art Museum
Chronology Excerpt:
“Receives a ninety-day Tamarind Institute of Lithography fellowship in Los Angeles, California, and, under the supervision of Master Printer Serge Lozingot, completes The Shut-In Suite, twenty-one lithographs in black tusche and crayon. In a 1976 interview with Los Angeles County Museum of Art curator Maurice Tuchman for the Archives of American Art on the occasion of Richard Diebenkorn, Harris says of the residency, ‘When I was working at Tamarind, I invited Dick to come there . . . I had been there a couple of months, three months, and I was about out of my head . . . I had a fight with the proprietor [June Wayne] . . . I took off . . . I couldn’t stand it anymore . . . I arrive back at the last day . . . and Dick came out, to say, “well everyone is waiting for you.” But he was very shy and was trying to tell me that inside there was a lot of tension when I would arrive . . . And it was the kind of thing that he hopes won’t happen, but it was also kind of exciting to them . . . when things don't go smoothly. When people have shown their sharp edges. . . .’
“In November, an exhibition of the material opens. The promotional text reads, ‘A shut-in’s intimate reflections on his environment. Harris’ [<i>sic</i>] crisp images appear as still lifes seen through a zoom lens: the views are cropped and flattened . . . The combination of flat patterns and implied dimension causes each work to shift between an abstract and a representational identity. This quality is strong in “Lawn Party” where the image is flat grassy green topped by broad green and white stripes suggesting the corner of an awning. In another, “Rain” (printed on yellow vinyl) red and blue floral wallpaper delineates a hanging raincoat.’”