TitleOut of Pocket
Artist
Medrie MacPhee
(b. 1953)
Date2016
MediumOil and collaged materials on canvas
DimensionsUnframed: 90 x 78 in.
SubmissionNA diploma presentation, August 18, 2021
Credit LineNational Academy of Design, New York, NY, Gift of Medrie MacPhee
Object number2021.11
Label TextOut of Pocket bridges the artist’s decades-long attention to architectural instability and recessive space via the flat, textural collaged elements that have taken over her very newest work. Against a pale, blue-green ground, a blue and white mass of what might be hemlines, cuffs and lapels occupies the middle ground while a pool of brownish-red, both ominous and abject, looms on the left, opposite a loose latticework, like a plan of ancient streets, on the right. At center stage is a swatch of dark blue denim with conjoined-twin pockets forming an hourglass shape. The painting is completely absorbing because the intensity of the artist’s focus is so clear. An extremely accomplished painter, MacPhee makes adjustments as she goes along — to her paintings; to her understanding of space; to the objects of her attention. Her facility and evident visual literacy shouldn’t be mistaken for pastiche. These paintings are cohesive, fully realized, and deeply personal.Collections
- New Acquisitions 2021
