William Lyon Phelps

Image Not Available

Expand

IIIFView PDF

William Lyon Phelps

Artist Mary Sully (Dakota Sioux, 1896 - 1963)

Date1920s to 1940s

Dimensionstop panel: 12.875 x 18 inches
middle panel: 12 x 19 inches
bottom panel: 9.5 x 12 inches

MediumColored pencil, black ink, gilt, white paint, pastel crayon, on paper

ClassificationDrawings

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

Object number

2025.147

Not on View

DescriptionThe top panel is what Deloria would describe as bilateral symmetry combined with rotational symmetrical geometry. A sunburst pattern with a blue center and concentric rings of red, orange, and yellow is drawn in the center of the page. Surrounding this “star” are drawn, two rows deep on four sides, the heads and shoulders, in silhouette, of Works of Art for Consideration Toledo Museum of Art attentive students. Radiating, wavy lines in each corner accentuate the dynamism of the speaker. The middle panel. The pattern of the drawing shifts to the diagonal in the second panel, where the green shapes of the students’ become clusters around a much smaller orb. The bottom panel is a brilliant medallion with a blue star center and zigzagging concentric circles of gray, red, orange and yellow. The green from the prior panels surrounds the medallion, which is cropped at the top and bottom, at the corners.

Published ReferencesDeloria, Phil, Becoming Mary Sully: Towards an American Indian Abstract, Seattle, University of Washington Press, 2019, repr.