Dan

Artist Alvin Loving (American, 1935-2005)

Date1973

DimensionsH: 88 in. (223.5 cm); W: 104 in. (264.2 cm)

MediumAcrylic on paper and cardboard

ClassificationPaintings

Credit LineNational Endowment for the Arts Museum Purchase Plan Program and matching funds from an anonymous donor

Object number

1975.8

Not on View

Label TextWhen he rose to prominence in the 1960s, Detroit-born African American abstract artist Al Loving’s work was characterized by careful and calculated studies of pure geometric forms. The work on display here, Dan, was created at a pivotal turning point in his career—when Loving began to abandon his signature aesthetic in favor of more fluid, large-scale works, often composed through the layering of ripped and painted cardboard. About his work during this period, Loving said, “I usually work on five or six pieces at a time, and usually I’m dealing with some particular question. What I’m doing now is dealing with shape and color. How do you deal with one and not destroy the other? …. for the first three or four days that I’m working on something, I know that none of this is going to be visible when it’s finished. Then I reach the point where the real question of why I painted this particular picture arises. That’s the part I like; it concerns the final placement of things. Art is making things and placement. ”Published ReferencesToledo Museum of Art, The Toledo Museum of Art, American Paintings, Toledo, 1979, p. 79, pl. 274.Exhibition HistoryToledo Museum of Art, Image, Color and Form: Recent Paintings by Eleven Americans, 1975, no. 21, repr. (with incorrect caption; cat. by R. Phillips).

Toledo Museum of Art, Everything is Rhythm: Mid-Century Art & Music, April 6, 2019-February 23, 2020.