These "blueprints" are extensively overlapped by bold, often colorful lines and geometric shapes that appear to dash across, curve around, or burst through the canvas. The dynamic lines suggest the movement of objects and time, as Mehretu attempts to compress the complex history and numerous elements of "place" -- whether the place is historic or futuristic, real or imaginary -- into each two-dimensional image using traditional pencil, pen, and acrylic paint.
« I don't ever work in a way where something is an illustration of an event, but when something is occurring at the same time I see it as very informed by that. »
Julie Mehretu
Mehretu applies the layers of paint with tools equally varied: hands, brushes, towels, and so on.With the
abstract Read More These "blueprints" are extensively overlapped by bold, often colorful lines and geometric shapes that appear to dash across, curve around, or burst through the canvas. The dynamic lines suggest the movement of objects and time, as Mehretu attempts to compress the complex history and numerous elements of "place" -- whether the place is historic or futuristic, real or imaginary -- into each two-dimensional image using traditional pencil, pen, and acrylic paint.
« I don't ever work in a way where something is an illustration of an event, but when something is occurring at the same time I see it as very informed by that. »
Julie Mehretu
Mehretu applies the layers of paint with tools equally varied: hands, brushes, towels, and so on.With the
abstract expressionist artist as city planner, these multilayered plans or maps of cities come to resemble even more so the
graffitiubiquitous to the urban landscape. Mehretu received an MFA from Rhode Island School of Design in Rhode Island.Two of her largest works, "Empiricial Construction, Istanbul" (which measures 10 feet by 15 feet) and "Mural" (23 feet by 80 feet) are housed at the Museum of Modern Art and at Goldman Sachs, respectively, in New York.
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