Prison with conduit, 1981
Acrylic, Day-Glo acrylic, and Roll-a-Tex on canvas (two parts)
137 x 91,5 cm / 54 x 36 in
Gift of the artist (PA 1971). Addison Art Drive, 1991.12
Featuring works drawn entirely from the Addison’s permanent collection, Little Boxes invites viewers into a nuanced exploration of the square and the rectangle, two essential geometric forms that have served as powerful tools in artistic expression. Across media and contexts, artists have used these shapes in many ways: from meticulously crafted three-dimensional assemblages to rigorously ordered grids; from symbols of homogeneous suburban and institutional architecture to diagrammatic organizational charts and visualizations of data. This exhibition explores the ways in which the deceptively simple “box” not only serves as a practical strategy for pictorial composition but as a symbolic container for complex narratives about the human condition and the rigidly structured realities we inhabit.
More information: Addison Gallery of American Art