Brooklyn Museum: Contemporary Art: Floor with Laundry No. 3

Floor with Laundry No. 3

Although now known primarily as a landscape painter, Sylvia Plimack Mangold engaged in the realistic depiction of domestic interiors until the mid-1970s. In this painting she painstakingly describes the geometry created by a patterned parquet floor strewn with articles of clothing. Using exaggerated perspective, the artist leads us into the depth of space, implying the large scale of the room. In contrast to the elaborately set up interiors that were the subject of paintings through the nineteenth century, Mangold presents a segment of a modern household where everyone is rushing, and tidying up is the last thing on anyone's mind.

Artist: Sylvia Plimack Mangold, American, born 1938
Medium: Acrylic and pencil on canvas
Place Made: USA
Dates: 1971
Dimensions: 44 x 56 in. (111.8 x 142.2cm)
Collections: Contemporary Art
Museum Location: This item is on view in American Identities: A New Look, 5th floor
Accession Number: 1993.213
Credit Line: Gift of Ivan and Sharon Koota in memory of Miriam Miller
Image: Overall, 1993.213_bw.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph

Collections: Contemporary Art: Floor with Laundry No. 3