Indy 500

Artist George Ortman (American, 1926-2015)

Datec. 1965

MediumSerigraph

DimensionsPaper Size: 26 7/8 × 26 7/8 in. (68.3 × 68.3 cm) Frame Size: 32 3/4 × 32 3/4 in. (83.2 × 83.2 cm)

ClassificationsPrint

Credit LineGift of Dirk Bakker and Hope Palmer, 2011

Object numberUAC4489

DescriptionNew York painter, printmaker and assemblage artist George Ortman reacted to the frenetic expressionism of the Action Painters of the 1950s by creating carefully composed geometries and symmetries in his own work — “order in a strange world,” as he put it in a 1964 Time interview — which often included road sign-like symbols. This isn’t to say his work was static, as can be seen in his print Indy 500 from 1965, depicting a circular image like a car wheel on a blue field. The scratchy, blurred treatment of both the circle’s outer edge and its eight inner spokes makes the wheel seem to hum with motion, evoking the sound of revving engines. The hard-edged, inward-pointing arrows, meanwhile, provide counterpoint to this energy, holding the wheel to its stable hub, creating a sense of resistance and tension. On the other hand, the precise symmetry of the image and blueprint-like color scheme suggest a certain theoretical detachment; perhaps this is more an illustration of potential energy, a plan on the drawing board waiting to be realized.

Text by Sean Bieri

Born in Oakland, California, in 1926, George Ortman began attending art classes at age five. After serving in the Navy, he moved to New York to begin his career, influenced, like others of his generation, by Surrealism and Cubism. His practice of incorporating geometric shapes and symbols into his paintings and constructions has been seen as a precursor to the Minimalism of the 1960s. Sometimes labeled Pop and Neo-Dada, Ortman’s art fits neatly into no category. “I would like simply to be called an artist,” he told Geoform editor Julie Karabenick in 2010. Ortman became head of the painting department at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in 1970, and worked there into the ‘90s. He died in Manhattan in 2015.

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