Track 112, 113, 114, 115, 116, 117
Sara Sosnowy, American, born 1957
1997
Oil, dry pigment, and canvas on canvas
Overall: 15 1/8 × 15 1/8 in. (38.4 × 38.4 cm)
Frame: 17 × 17 in. (43.2 × 43.2 cm)
Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Gift of Sally and Wynn Kramarsky
© Sara Sownowy
2006.28.7
Geography
Place Made: United States, North America
Period
20th century
Object Name
Painting
Research Area
Painting
Not on view
Label
On the boundary of abstraction and representation, Sara Sosnowy’s carefully collaged rings evoke the meditative process of creation. Meticulously circling the center of the canvas, the components resemble an isolated flower as they spread outward in an ordered but organic way. The title gives an industrial edge to the work, calling attention to a mechanized process that moves beyond the natural world—although the composition looks, at first glance, like a flower, there are more possibilities to consider. The work depicts the simple beauty that Sosnowy searches for in her patient process: "For me as an artist, it’s about making something beautiful," she says. Removing the flower from any landscape context, her work transcends the floral form through its ordered composition and monotone use of color. From the 2022 exhibition A Space for Dialogue 105, Transcendent Landscapes: Abstracting Nature, curated by Alice Crow '22, Levinson Intern
The one constant in my paintings through all these many years . . . has been the search for the beautiful. I strive for beauty in all of my work. For me as an artist, this is what is important and what it’s all about. -- Sara Sosnowy
The artist based this work on the circular patterns of a blooming flower. She gave her brush strokes the power and distinction of individual petals, while working with texture and color to unite them into a tight overall pattern. The concentric circles echo other compositions found in nature, such as the expanding rings caused by a dropped stone in a calm body of water.
From the 2023 exhibition The Painter's Hand: U.S. Abstraction since 1950, curated by John Stomberg, Virginia Rice Kelsey 1961s Director
Course History
SART 31/SART 72, Painting II/III, Colleen Randall, Spring 2022
Music 3.07, The Minimalist Impulse, Victoria Aschheim - OPEN HOURS, Winter 2023
Music 3.07, The Minimalist Impulse, Victoria Aschheim - OPEN HOURS 1, Winter 2023
Studio Art 25.01, Painting I, Daniele Genadry, Summer 2023
Philosophy 1.11, Art: True, Beautiful, Nasty, John Kulvicki, Summer 2023
Philosophy 1.11, Art: True, Beautiful, Nasty, John Kulvicki, Summer 2023
First Year Student Enrichment Program - Cultures, Identities and Belongings, Francine A'Ness, Summer 2023
Studio Art 15.04, Drawing I, Enrico Riley, Fall 2023
Studio Art 17.08, Digital Drawing, Karol Kawiaka, Fall 2023
Studio Art 25.01, Painting I, Jen Caine, Fall 2023
Writing 5.05, Image and Text, Becky Clark, Fall 2023
Writing 5.06, Image and Text, Becky Clark, Fall 2023
Exhibition History
A Space for Dialogue 105, Transcendent Landscape: Abstracting Nature, Alice Crow, Class of 2023, Alvin P. Gutman Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, March 5 - April 23, 2022
Contemporary Abstraction: Works from the Hood Museum of Art's Permanent Collection, Churchill P. Lathrop Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, January 4-March 13, 2016.
Modern and Contemporary Art at Dartmouth: Highlights from the Hood Museum of Art, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, September 26,2009-March 15, 2010.
The Painter's Hand: U.S. Abstraction since 1950, William B. Jaffe and Evelyn A. Jaffe-Hall Galleries, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, June 3-December 16, 2023.
Publication History
Amy Eshoo, Ed., with contributions by Derrick R. Cartwright, James Cuno, Elizabeth Finch, Josef Helfenstein, Glenn D. Lowry, David Mickenberg, Ann Philbin, Earl A. Powell III, Jock Reynolds, and Townsend Wolfe, 560 Broadway: A New York Drawing Collection at Work, 1991-2006, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2008, checklist, p. 159.
Brian P. Kennedy and Emily Shubert Burke, Modern and Contemporary Art at Dartmouth: Highlights from the Hood Museum of Art, Hanover: Trustees of Dartmouth College, 2009 p.85, no.61.
Provenance
Sally and Wynn Kramarsky, New York; given to present collection, 2006.
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