Provenance

Estate of Robert Laurent

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Layered circles and dots, crosses, checkered patterns, curved and wavy lines, and other geometric shapes in tomato red, shamrock green, buttercup yellow, royal blue, black, and bright white float against a field of unpainted canvas in this vertical, abstract painting. The shapes are most densely packed at the center of the composition. The eye is drawn to a red circle with flame-like forms at the sides and top, about three-quarters of the way up the canvas. Immediately underneath it and arcing out to our left is navy-blue band with three white, wavy lines. Other patterns to either side of the central red shape include two flag-like squares of alternating green and white stripes near two other patches containing a red and green checkered pattern. Other areas are patterned in black and yellow stripes, and blue and white stripes. Dots, lines, and lollipop-like shapes are scattered sparsely through the rest of the composition. Three shapes float near three of the corners, not touching anything in the layered, central portion: a red circle within a yellow ring at the upper right; a red dot at the lower left; and a red cross at the lower right. The frame was painted by the artist in the same colors as the canvas, with bands of color separating dots, crosses, and the lollipop-like form.
Marsden Hartley, The Aero, c. 1914, oil on canvas, Andrew W. Mellon Fund, 1970.31.1

The Aero

Marsden Hartley · c. 1914 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1970.31.1

Bibliography

1985

  • Falk, Peter Hastings, ed. Who Was Who in American Art. Madison, Connecticut, 1985: 60.