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Regional Work #2

Ree Morton

Contemporary Art

Ree Morton’s series of twelve two-part seascape paintings was executed in San Diego in 1976. These deliberately romantic works are sensory impressions of seaside sunsets, and Morton zooms into ocean depths to depict fish in a naturally sublime palette. These wry updates to the storied art-historical theme of the sea are framed by Morton’s groundbreaking use of Celastic to represent billowing curtains. A plastic-composite fabric, when dampened Celastic can be shaped and formed—but quickly, and with significant resistance. Morton relished the challenge of working with a material that was not passive but required work and process, and thereby challenged dominant ways of making paintings.
MEDIUM Oil on wood with celastic
DATES 1976
DIMENSIONS Overall: 40 × 50 in. (101.6 × 127 cm) (a) Panel with fish: 18 1/2 × 49 3/4 in. (47 × 126.4 cm) (b) Panel with seascape: 17 × 50 in. (43.2 × 127 cm) frame (A): 23 × 54 1/2 × 5 1/2 in. (58.4 × 138.4 × 14 cm) frame (B): 23 × 54 1/2 × 5 1/2 in. (58.4 × 138.4 × 14 cm)  (show scale)
SIGNATURE Unsigned
COLLECTIONS Contemporary Art
ACCESSION NUMBER 88.34a-b
CREDIT LINE Gift of the Estate of Ree Morton
CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION (a) panel with fish image; (b) panel with seascape
MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view
CAPTION Ree Morton (American, 1936–1977). Regional Work #2, 1976. Oil on wood with celastic, Overall: 40 × 50 in. (101.6 × 127 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of the Estate of Ree Morton, 88.34a-b. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 88.34a-b_SL1.jpg)
IMAGE overall, 88.34a-b_SL1.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph
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RIGHTS STATEMENT © artist or artist's estate
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