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Christopher Wool
Untitled, 1993

Artwork Info

Artwork title
Untitled
Artist name
Christopher Wool
Date created
1993
Classification
painting
Medium
enamel on aluminum
Dimensions
92 in. × 70 1/4 in. × 2 in. (233.68 cm × 178.44 cm × 5.08 cm)
Date acquired
1993
Credit
Collection SFMOMA
Gift of the artist in memory of John Caldwell
Copyright
© Christopher Wool
Permanent URL
https://www.sfmoma.org/artwork/93.485
Artwork status
Not on view at this time.

Audio Stories

Why paint flowers in black and white?

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transcripts

NARRATOR: 

What could be more traditional, more trite, even – than a painting of flowers? We see a big daisy-type blossom in the top center. And next to that, in the corner, a rose. And in the middle, so many flowers have been layered on top of each other, that it’s completely unreadable. A black mass. And, of course, we’d expect a flower painting to be in color. So, in the process of making this flower painting, the artist Christopher Wool almost seems to be negating it. 

 

The image becomes, in a way, a symbol – a stand-in – for a representational painting in a traditional genre. It’s a visual negative, presented on a such large scale so as to overwhelm us with its physical reality. 

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Other Works by Christopher Wool

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