Way Through
Artist
Sharon VanDenbrouck
(1955 - 2005)
Date1982
MediumPaint, paper, collage
Dimensions32 × 48 in. (81.3 × 121.9 cm)
ClassificationsCollage
Object numberUAC6438
DescriptionThis large collage, blending paint, paper, grommets and stings, “Way Through” tends towards the abstract with the addition of some recognizable elements. The eye is drawn to the light colored steps that curve around the green stripe that divides the canvas like a doorway. The left half, however, seems to lend itself to the external world, with a hat-like shape floating in the red patch, and a white area of canvas suggesting the silhouette of a train on raised train tracks. The piece can be summed up in the idea of travel, and the various symbols we connect to such a varied concept. Collage, as a medium and as an approach to art making, blossomed in the modern and contemporary periods. Artists moved away from strictly sticking to the traditions of painting and wanted to explore new ways of making art with other things, giving credence to this once neglected art form. In VanDenBrouck’s work, this manifests not only as an interesting textural element on the canvas, but as a joining together of many of the ideas that can be represented by the phrase “Way Through.”
Sharon VanDenBrouck (1955-2005), studied at the College for Creative Studies before getting her masters at Wayne State University. She taught at the College for Creative Studies.
Written by Alex Heath
