1951-T No. 3
Clyfford Still
American, 1904–1980
1951
A monumental oil-on-canvas painting in which Clyfford Still builds a raw, elemental presence by laying a vast, textured field of black against narrow, jagged bands of color to evoke emotion without representation.
You first register the black as an almost architectural, heavily worked mass whose torn, irregular edges and scraped surface reveal thin vertical slivers of cream, orange, yellow and cobalt like seams of light.
A defining work of Abstract Expressionism, it helped move painting away from depiction toward immersive, nonrepresentational fields where scale, paint surface, and color aim to produce a direct, bodily response.
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
7' 10" x 6' 10" (238.8 x 208.3 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Blanchette Hooker Rockefeller Fund
Accession
277.1954
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
