Harvester

Artist Grace Hartigan (American, 1922-2008)

Date1966

DimensionsPainting: 68 1/8 × 50 in. (173 × 127 cm)
Frame: 70 × 52 × 1 3/4 in. (177.8 × 132.1 × 4.4 cm)

Mediumoil on canvas

ClassificationPaintings

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

Object number

2022.23

On View

Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 05

DescriptionThe painting is an abstract image mostly in tones of yellow and red ochre with some black.

Label TextThough she was an indomitable force in Abstract Expressionism, Grace Hartigan never fully abandoned her interest in the figure. By the 1960s, she entered a period of stylistic exploration and sought to discover a distinct artistic voice. Hartigan described her new personal approach: “I now hope to triumph; to bring to each painting as much clarity, beauty, and even ecstasy as I am able. The scream has become a song.” Concentrating on the surface of the canvas, Hartigan builds up and rubs away thin layers of paint before adding thick black outlines and swaths of opaque autumnal color, resulting in a stained-glass effect.Published ReferencesGrand Rapids Art Museum, 20th Century American Painting, Grand Rapids, Detroit, Grand Rapids Art Museum, 1967.Exhibition HistoryNew York City, Martha Jackson Gallery, Grace Hartigan: Oils 1966, February-March 1967.

Grand Rapids Art Museum, 20th Century American Painting, April 1-30, 1967.

Baltimore, Maryland, Maryland Arts Council, Maryland Artists Today, 1968-1969.