L-1962

Artist George Bireline American, 1923–2002

Date1962

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensions50 1/8 x 69 1/4 in. (127.3 x 175.9 cm)

ClassificationsPaintings

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the North Carolina State Art Society (Robert F. Phifer Bequest)

Object numberG.63.13.1

On View

Not on view

Label Text
For George Bireline, landscape was a source of inspiration-spatial configurations and weather suggest composition and palette. Through all the dramatic changes of his marvelously diverse body of work, there has been a steady focus on formal concerns. The organization of a Bireline painting is immediately recognizable. The work can be characterized as an investigation of space, with the use of a window as a continuing motif. There is often, as here, the suggestion that the viewer is looking into or through something, in this case through a window out onto a landscape-or an idea derived from a landscape.

As for the title, according to the artist the "L" might stand for his daughter Lisa or perhaps for landscape, or it might just be a way of differentiating this painting from others.
ProvenanceCreated Raleigh, NC, 1962; collection of the artist; sold to NCMA, 1963.Published ReferencesTwenty-Fifth Annual North Carolina Artists' Exhibition (exhibition catalogue) (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1962), cat. no. 12.

"Acquisitions," North Carolina Museum of Art Bulletin 4, nos. 2 and 3 (Winter-Spring 1964), listed 58.

Acquisitions from North Carolina Annuals, 1946-1966 (exhibition catalogue) (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1967), cat. no. 4, illus. (b-w).

Preview: The Magazine of the North Carolina Museum of Art (July/August 2003), illus. (color) 12.
Exhibition HistoryRaleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, "Twenty-Fifth Annual North Carolina Artists' Exhibition," December 6–30, 1962, cat. no. 12.

Fayetteville, NC, Cumberland County Public Library, "Outreach Exhibition," May, 1964.

Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, "Acquisitions from North Carolina Annuals,1946-1966," March 12–26, 1967, cat. no. 4, illus. (b-w).

Marion, NC, McDowell Arts and Crafts Association, "Paintings from the 50's and 60's," October 30–November 25, 1986; Lexington, NC, Davidson Art Guild, July 31–August 26, 1987.

Goldsboro, NC, Community Arts Council, "Paintings from the 50's and 60's," January 6–29, 1989.

Morganton, NC, City of Morganton Municipal Auditorium, "Art in North Carolina, 1912–1954," October 5–November 7, 1994.

Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, "In Memoriam: George Bireline (1923–2002)," December 18, 2002–August 3, 2003.

Tallinn, Estonia, United States Embassy, ART in Embassies Program, May 2, 2007–February 11, 2009. Object Rights Statement

The North Carolina Museum of Art (NCMA) makes images of its collection available online to support research and scholarship and to inform and educate the public. Certain works of art, as well as the photographs of those works of art, may be protected by copyright, trademark, or related interests not owned by the NCMA. The responsibility for ascertaining whether any such rights exist and for obtaining all other necessary permissions remains with the applicant. To request images and/or permissions from the NCMA, please complete our online request form.