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The process, which incorporates deconstructed historical books to create abstract paintings, invites the viewer to “read” the work not simply as a balance of forms, but as a system, or grid, that underpins our current social and political climate. Purposely playing with legibility and illegibility, the artist asks his viewer to understand that power is not simply housed in individuals, but in the structure of our history.
Time Will Tell
Artist
Samuel Levi Jones
(American, born 1978)
Date2024
Dimensionsframe: 21 1/2 x 21 1/2 x 3 in. (54.6 x 54.6 x 7.6 cm)
image: 20 x 20 in. (50.8 x 50.8 cm)
image: 20 x 20 in. (50.8 x 50.8 cm)
ClassificationsART, 2-DIMENSIONAL
Credit LineMuseum Purchase with Funds Donated by Mary Spurrier
Object number2025.8
DescriptionSituated inside a square, rectilinear forms abut each other, connected by black, zigzag stitching.. Each rectangle is discrete; their colors and textures do not overlap with the adjoining plane but stay resolutely within the bounds of the stitching. Upon closer inspection, each section reveals something of its origin: the stained, tan color of a book’s binding or the holes and black paper of a scrapbook. In several places across the surface of the painting, large tan forms appear, as if something had been ripped away from each of these rectangles, leaving glued on traces that cannot be easily removed. The light blue of the lower left section recalls the blue of the ocean on map, while the textural green rectangle perpendicular to it seems to suggest a tree-filled topography. The center rectangle, a dingy coral, brings these colors, along with the tans and blacks, to a focal point. The process, which incorporates deconstructed historical books to create abstract paintings, invites the viewer to “read” the work not simply as a balance of forms, but as a system, or grid, that underpins our current social and political climate. Purposely playing with legibility and illegibility, the artist asks his viewer to understand that power is not simply housed in individuals, but in the structure of our history.
On View
American Modernism Gallery