2003.75: Alibi 2

Identification and Creation

Object Number

2003.75

People

Julian Lethbridge, American (Colombo, Sri Lanka born 1947)

Title

Alibi 2

Classification

Paintings

Work Type

painting

Date

1992

Culture

American

Persistent Link

https://hvrd.art/o/98571

Physical Descriptions

Medium

Oil on linen

Dimensions

101.9 x 86.4 cm (40 1/8 x 34 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History

Mr. and Mrs. Bernard Greenberg, Beverly Hills, California, gift (through Paula Cooper Gallery, New York, New York), gift; to Harvard University Art Museums, 2003.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line

Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Bernard Greenberg in honor of James Cuno

Accession Year

2003

Object Number

2003.75

Division

Modern and Contemporary Art

Contact

am_moderncontemporary@harvard.edu

Permissions

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Descriptions

Description

A thickly painted oil on linen in creamy white, incised with gouged strokes that appear to have been stained, rather than painted, by a brush loaded with heavily thinned black paint. The lines are widely spaced and concentric about the various loosely-drawn shapes, which gives an almost cartoon-like sense of startle to the surface. This effect is heightened by the perception of what seems to be a face, as well other possible anatomical allusions. The painting is housed in a simple black-stained wood frame. (Artist's? collector's?)

Commentary

Julian Lethbridge, a Cambridge-educated British artist who has lived in New York since 1973, is usually described as an abstract, expressive (if not expressionist) artist. Often appearing to base his imagery on organic stuffs, like grasses or branches, he has mined the possibilities available to varied densities of ground, and to patterns of lines, mostly overlapping -- either densely hatched and straight, or gnarly and thicket-like -- both in black and white and in varying degrees of stained and directly applied color, in painting, drawing, and printmaking.(His printmaking is extensive and much praised for its variation and control.) Lethbridge is also a much-celebrated teacher and has taught on the faculties of Columbia University, Yale, and Harvard's Department of Visual and Environmental Studies.

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