Grace Hartigan, born Newark, NJ 1922-died Timonium, MD 2008 Search this
Medium:
oil on canvas
Dimensions:
78 1/2 x 108 1/2 in. (199.4 x 275.6 cm)
Type:
Painting
Date:
1967
Gallery Label:
My male students at the time were obsessed with motorcycles--one even kept his in his studio--and out of sheer self-preservation I bought a poster of Brando on a bike and [of] Peter Fonda, some cycle magazines, pinned them on my painting wall and Modern Cycle was the result. It is, incidentally, one of my favorite paintings.
--Grace Hartigan
Grace Hartigan's work often combines the spontaneity and large scale of abstract painting with images drawn from popular culture or everyday experience. In Modern Cycle, we see fragments of people and motorbikes--a dynamic mix of human and mechanical, masculine and feminine.
