-
Artworks
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup:Alexander Gray Associates, Frieze New York 2022, Installation view
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup:Alexander Gray Associates, Frieze New York 2022, Installation view
Betty Parsons
Untitled, c. 1951Gouache on paper10 5/16 x 8 1/16 in (26.2 x 20.5 cm)
17 7/8 x 15 5/8 x 1 5/8 in framed (45.4 x 39.7 x 4.1 cm framed)BP136Further images
Untitled (ca. 1951) is an early example of one of Betty Parsons’s signature approaches to abstraction, which she advanced in the early 1960s. Free-floating biomorphic forms in white punctuate a...Untitled (ca. 1951) is an early example of one of Betty Parsons’s signature approaches to abstraction, which she advanced in the early 1960s. Free-floating biomorphic forms in white punctuate a bright red monochromatic field, which Parsons realized in loose brushstrokes that allow small areas of the paper to remain visible. As critic Roberta Smith describes, Parsons “isolates shapes of color on contrasting grounds, like islands in a sea, or windows in the corner of a room.” This work is a key example of Parsons’s keen sense of color, with blue-green accent strokes further distinguishing the forms against their background. In a further activation of the compositional surface, Parsons has used the back of her paintbrush to etch into the wet gouache.
Exhibitions
2020: Betty Parsons: 1950s Works on Paper, Alexander Gray Associates, Germantown, NY1of 3