Label Text"Historically, decoration has functioned as a
secondary issue; it's the amount of eyeball left
after you've finished looking at the main event.
I would reverse that and call attention to the
decoration as the iconography and subject matter
of the art, and then mess around in the middle
somewhere . . . I've messed up the meaning of art
and decoration."
Cynthia Carson
Because of the prevalence of patterning in her paintings of the 1970s, Carlson was included in several exhibitions at the time devoted to a movement known as "Pattern and Decoration." Traditionally, decorative patterning had been associated with pop culture or consumer items such as wallpaper, gift wrapping, or furniture. In the hands of Carlson and her peers, patterning became a viable subject for paintings, sculptures, and room-sized installations.
In this and other paintings from the 1970s, Carlson experimented with a variety of formats and procedures for making lively patterns from thick chunks of paint. Here, the paint has been squeezed through a common pastry tube to form modular patterns that resemble the sewn-together pieces of a fabric quilt. Through the associations with domesticity that are inherent in both the artist's process and imagery, this painting can also be considered an important example of feminist art. It was painted during the formative years of the women's movement.
(David Rubin, Label Text 2007)
This resource has been made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the Human Endeavor.
