Signals

Artist Lee Mullican American, 1919–1998

Date1952

MediumOil on canvas with graphite

Dimensions53 x 79 in. (134.6 x 200.7 cm)
Frame: 54 1/4 x 80 1/4 in. (137.8 x 203.8 cm)

ClassificationsPaintings

Credit LineBequest of Fannie and Alan Leslie

Object number2006.21.13

On View

Not on view

Label Text
The astonishing and disorienting discoveries of science have continually charged the imaginations of modern artists. Lee Mullican's paintings explore spaces that could only exist at the roiling edge of the universe or in the microbial soup of a Petri dish. As suggested by the title of this painting, Mullican developed a shorthand way of making marks that provide only the frailest structure of meaning. In Signals the assorted "objects" float or dangle, their seeming randomness yet containing broken sequences and patterns.ProvenanceThe artist, Santa Monica, CA; sold to Fannie and Alan Leslie, Palm Springs, CA, 1994; on extended loan to NCMA, 2003-2006; bequeathed to NCMA, 2006.Published ReferencesJohn Coffey, "Modern American Paintings from the Bequest of Fannie and Alan Leslie," in Preview: The Magazine of the North Carolina Museum of Art (Winter 2008), briefly discussed and illus. (color detail) 9.
Exhibition HistoryRaleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, “Modern American Paintings from the Bequest of Fannie and Alan Leslie,” November 25, 2007–September 6, 2009. Object Rights Statement

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