Dalet Tet

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Dalet Tet

Artist Morris Louis (American, 1912-1962)

Date1959

DimensionsPainting: 104 1/4 × 95 in. (264.8 × 241.3 cm)
Frame: 104 1/2 × 95 1/2 × 3 in. (265.4 × 242.6 × 7.6 cm)

Mediumacrylic resin (Magna) on canvas

ClassificationPaintings

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

2005.32

On View

External Site Address (External address), On Loan

Label TextNamed for the fourth and ninth letters of the Hebrew alphabet, Dalet Tet, one of Morris Louis’s most striking paintings from a series known as Veils. It suggests a waterfall of multiple colors of paint layered one upon another. The majority of the large, unprimed canvas is darkened by the accumulation of wet pigments and a wash of diluted dark paint. However, at the extreme top, the individual colors that make up the painting can be seen. Louis came of age in the generation of the Abstract Expressionist painters and, like the most prominent artists of that group (Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning), he made large and bold gestural compositions. He chose to work with newly invented acrylic paints, sometimes acquiring them before they were even available on the market. He diluted these paints to make them thinner and poured them, with the aid of gravity, down his canvases. Working with raw canvas allowed the liquid colors to penetrate and stain the fabric, so that paint and canvas became one—and his compositions became “paintings about painting,” one of the hallmarks of Modernism.Published ReferencesDrath, The Washington Dossier, October 1976, p. 47

Millard, Charles. "Morris Louis," The Hudson Review, Summer 1977, p. 255.

Wright, Martha McWilliams, "Sovereign Color: Morris Louis in Washington."New Lugano Review 3, 1977, p. 56, repr. (col.) p. 57 (illustrated)

Headley, [Upright], Diane. "In Addition to the Veils." Art in America 66, January-February 1978, p. 89 (illustrated)

Upright, Diane. Morris Louis: The Complete Paintings. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1985, pp. 149, 208, no. 184 (illustrated)

Scottsdale, Riva Yares Gallery, Morris Louis: The French & Co. Show of 1960 - Revisited, 2004, p. 48, repr. (col.) p. 34 [not exhibited].

Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo Museum of Art Masterworks, Toledo, 2009, p. 335, repr. (col.).

Exhibition HistoryWashington, D.C., National Gallery of Art, Morris Louis: Major Themes and Variations, September 1976-January 1977, p. 21, repr. (col.) p. 20, no. 4.

Minneapolis, Walker Art Center; Denver, Denver Art Museum; Fort Worth, Fort Worth Art Museum; Syracuse, Everson Museum of Art; et al. Morris Louis: The Veil Cycle, February 1977-January 1978, p. 12, no. 20, repr.

Scottsdale, Riva Yares Gallery, Morris Louis: Major Paintings 1953 - 1962, March 31 - May 19, 2001; Santa Fe, August 17 - September 21, 2001, pp. 4, 32, p. 12 repr. (col.).

Atlanta, The High Museum of Art; San Diego, Museum of Contemporary Art; Washington D.C., Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Walk, Morris Louis Now: An American Master Revisited, 2006-2008, no. 10, p. 82, repr. (col.) p. 83.

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

Comparative ReferencesSee also "Morris Louis Conservation Fund," INCCA Blog, New York, International Network for the Conservation of Contemporary Art, 2014, http://incca-na.org/the-morris-louis-conservation-fund/