The Value of Pictures
Modern and Contemporary Art
The Value of Pictures
Artwork Details
Artist/Maker
Jonathan Lasker
American, born 1948
American, born 1948
Date
1993
Medium
Oil on canvas
Accession #
1993.103
Dimensions
96 x 132 inches
Location
On View - Wieland Pavilion, Skyway, Gallery 417
Description
In an exploration of the style and clichés of abstract art, Jonathan Lasker dissects the calligraphic brushstrokes of Abstract Expressionist paintings of the 1940s and 1950s, as in this ironic caricature. Here Lasker manipulates the formal elements of abstract painting: figure, ground, pictorial space, and flatness. His brushwork is deliberately contrived, as if to question the authenticity and originality of abstraction in an image-savvy world. The work’s title is a comment on the role images play in today’s media saturated culture, and on the monetary value and cultural significance of artworks.
Credit
Purchase with funds from Alfred Austell Thornton in memory of Leila Austell Thornton and Albert Edward Thornton, Sr., and Sarah Miller Venable and William Hoyt VenableImage Copyright
© Jonathan Lasker
Check This Out
-
Two Figures and El,
Two Figures and El
-
Summer Delirium,
Summer Delirium
-
Scruff,
Scruff
-
Head,
Head
Related
VIDEO: “The Value of Pictures” by Jonathan Lasker,