Spencer Finch (born 1962). Back to Kansas, 2015. Exterior household paint on canvas. 190 × 186 inches. Collection of Christian Keesee, New York and Oklahoma. Photo: Ironside Photography, Courtesy of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.
Sam Falls (born 1984). Untitled (Maze), 2014. Powder-coated aluminum and steel hardware. 96 × 144 × 144 inches. © Sam Falls, courtesy 303 Gallery, New York. Photo: Ironside Photography, Courtesy of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.
TYPOE (born 1983). Forms from Life, 2017. Painted aluminum. Dimensions vary. Courtesy of the artist. Installation view, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, 2019. Photo: Ironside Photography, Courtesy of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.
Claire Helen Ashley (born 1971). Hunnybunny (in a Pickle), 2016-2019. Approximately 216 x 144 x 144 inches. Installation view, "How We See: Materiality and Color", Laumeier Sculpture Park, St. Louis, MO. Spray paint and duct tape on PVC coated canvas tarpaulin, ropes, and fan. Courtesy of the artist.
Jeffie Brewer (born 1971). Bunny, 2019. Gigaff, 2019. Dimensions vary. Painted steel. Courtesy of the artist.
This presentation of Color Field has been organized by Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas for Artis—Naples.
December 1, 2019 – May 10, 2020
Located mainly outdoors on the
Kimberly K. Querreyand Louis A. Simpson Cultural Campus
Featuring large-scale sculptures by six contemporary artists, Color Field is an exhibition mostly displayed outdoors throughout the Cultural Campus. The brightly colored works by Claire Helen Ashley, Sarah Braman, Jeffie Brewer, Sam Falls, Spencer Finch and TYPOE draw inspiration from what is now known as Color Field paintings of the 1950s and ’60s. Artists associated with this art movement, such as Helen Frankenthaler, Morris Louis and Sam Gilliam, poured, sprayed or applied paint with rags and sponges to create clouds of color that seemingly float on the surface of the canvas. As early as 1968, Gilliam also created sculptural works by taking his paintings off their stretchers and draping them freely from the wall. The artists presented in this exhibition further extend the Modernist notion of Color Field beyond the flat pictorial field of the canvas, expanding it into the real space that a viewer occupies.
Ashley’s inflatable sculpture, with bright colors splattered across its pillowy shapes, bursts with life, while TYPOE and Brewer’s brightly colored, whimsical metal sculptures with simple contours show cheeky, critical reverence for modern pop culture. Fall’s Wind Chimes and Untitled (Maze) are interactive sculptures; the Untitled (Maze) will appear different over the course of the day, as some panels coated with light-sensitive paints respond to the effects of changing weather. Likewise, as light falls through the windows filled with colored glasses, Braman’s Here, created from a concrete drainage pipe, kaleidoscopic patterns of color across its interior are revealed. Lastly, Finch’s Back to Kansas sets gridded squares of color, as if a billboard or the towering screen of a drive-in movie theater. Its title alludes to the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, which begins in Kansas in old-fashioned black and white and then shifts to glowing color when Dorothy arrives in the land of Oz. This presentation of Color Field has been organized by Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas for Artis—Naples.
Associated Events
Color Field Exhibition Lecture
March 20, 2020 • 10am
Sam Falls (born 1984). Untitled (Wind chimes), 2014. Powder-coated aluminum and steel. 143 ¼ × 48 × 48 inches. Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zurich / New York. Photo: Ironside Photography, Courtesy of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.
Sarah Braman (born 1970). Here, 2019. Concrete drainage pipe, powder-coated aluminum frames, and laminated glass. 96 × 140 × 140 inches. © Sarah Braman, courtesy of the artist and Mitchell-Innes & Nash, New York. Photo: Ironside Photography, Courtesy of Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.