Collection Record
Images
Metadata
Artist |
Itatani, Michiko (American, b. 1941) |
Title |
"Untitled" Painting from Viable Elevation V-3 |
Date |
2000 |
Medium |
Oil Paint |
Material |
Canvas |
Technique |
Oil on canvas |
Height (in) |
78.000 |
Width (in) |
96.000 |
Credit line |
Gift of Dr. Harold F. Daum |
Notes |
Michiko Itatani tells us, "In my youth, I wanted to pursue writing fiction. I strongly believe in fiction's ability to express the deepest truths." She majored in literature and philosophy in her native Japan and, seeking life experience, came to Chicago in the early 1970s to study visual art; it is there she has remained. The subject matter of her work, since that time, has been consistently of a personal and humanistic character expressed in conceptual and allegorical terms. Itatani's paintings are formally complex, often abstract, and intended to offer visual pleasure. In them, she explores psychological, cultural, and historical realms, but in ways that might not be immediately readable. The artist's visual fictions center on depictions of space, both pictorial space and hyperspace. There is geometric structure in her compositions, but it is of an irregular nature. Her use of contrasting forms and interrupted planes suggests narrative motives, while webs of fine lines and appended panels provide amplifying footnotes. Itatani claims that her process of painting is similar to writing, but that her work often remains "incomplete, fragmented, and under inquiry." Itatani received BFA and MFA degrees from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her work has been included in over 100 exhibitions throughout the Midwest, Europe, and Asia. She is included in national and international collections, among them the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul; and the Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento. She is a professor in the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her grants and awards include a John Guggenheim Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, Illinois Arts Council Artist’s Fellowship, Chicago Artists Abroad Grant and Marie Walsh Sharpe New York City Space Grant. An Associate Professor at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago since 1979, Itatani teaches Studio Painting/Drawing, Undergraduate Critic Seminar, Graduate Project and Graduate Seminar. This monumental painting by Itatani demands the presence of the viewer with its sheer size and curious imagery. The large black field with an array of ellipses surrounded by stringy lines can be interpreted in various ways depending on the background of the spectator. The small painting located in the lower left-hand corner of this work looks like a smaller version of the fan-like imagery on the other side of the painting. The visual dialogue between the two images leaves the spectator contemplating the exact nature of their relationship. |
Object ID |
2011.01.51 |
Object Type |
Painting |