Untitled (Shield)
Artist
Ellen Phelan
(American, born 1943)
Date1970-1971
MediumAcrylic on cut canvas
Dimensions87 1/2 × 39 1/2 × 3 in. (222.3 × 100.3 × 7.6 cm)
ClassificationsPainting
Credit LineGift of Susanne F. Hilberry Estate, 2021
Object numberUAC6847
DescriptionEllen Phelan grew up in Detroit but currently resides in New York. She earned her B.F. A. (1968), M.A. (1970), and M.F.A. (1971) from Wayne State University. She played an active role in the Detroit Artists’ Market in the mid-1960s as a founding member of the Willis Gallery, and was an integral advocate in the gallery’s democratic reorganization in 1973. Her work has been featured in solo exhibitions at the Cincinnati Art Museum, the Baltimore Museum of Art, and the Wadsworth Atheneum. To add, Phelan’s artwork is part of the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Walker Art Center, the Baltimore Museum, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Museum of Contemporary Art in Mexico City, and High Museum of Art in Atlanta. Phelan is often associated with the Cass Corridor art movement, but her work does not contain the same gritty, industrial aesthetic as the predominantly male artists from the movement. While commonly known for her psychologically-charged works on dolls, Phelan has created a very diverse body of work throughout her career. She employs a variety of media, including oil, watercolor, pastel, gouache, photography, stencil, and collage. Her earlier works demonstrate her interest in exploring the boundary between painting and sculpture. Phelan also drew from postminimalism when creating her early works, which is evident in Shield (1970-71).
Phelan’s work Shield is currently on view at the Elaine L. Jacob Gallery in Confluent: Detroit Art and the University Art Collection. It was also shown in the notable Kick out the Jams exhibition at the Detroit Institute of Arts, which featured Cass Corridor art from 1963-1977, as well as in her first show at the Willis Gallery in 1971. The work consists of canvas that Phelan has painted in varying hues of red and blue and cut the sides of into strips. These strips may allude to Native American “costumes and blankets as well as to the contemporary popularity of fringed clothing.” As noted previously, Phelan was interested in investigating the boundary between painting and sculpture, which is reflected in Shield. She covers the canvas in acrylic as one might do for a traditional painting, while the fringe element adds a three-dimensional, sculptural component to the work. Moreover, this work may also challenge traditional notions of high or fine art versus low or folk art. Paintings are often considered high art within the mainstream Western art world, while the fringe reference to Native Americans blankets are typically considered folk art. By juxtaposing these two forms of art within Shield, Phelan encourages us to challenge not only our traditional perception of media, but our traditional perception of how art is valued.
Written by Angela Athnasios
Sources: "Ellen Phelan." Kick out the Jams Exhibition Catalogue
https://www.detroitartistsworkshop.com/phelan-ellen/
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