Hollins
Artist
Maryann Harman
(American)
Date1982
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions48 × 73 in. (121.9 × 185.4 cm)
ClassificationsPainting
Object numberUAC2726
DescriptionThis large canvas, six feet long, shows off the versatility of oil paint as a medium, with smoothly blended sections of colors like the center brown and purple, and the transitions from red to yellow at the top of the piece. These smooth color fields are contrasted by these harsh-bordered stripes of blue and white that streak, marble-like, through the canvas.Hollins follows in the abstract expressionist tradition of color field art, where the techniques and forms are made up of broad, intersecting spaces of color. This process can include pouring paint directly on the canvas, such as with art by Helen Frankenthaler, or adding spaces of color without defined representation such as in the work of Mark Rothko.
Maryann Harman worked in a kind of color field style in the 1970s and 80s, producing a kind of uniquely textured color scape. She taught at Virginia Tech for 30 years, influencing artists as notable as Tishan Hsu, who credits her for his understanding of color in his work.
Written by Alex Heath
