Contemporary Art 1980–Present

On View: East Building, Upper Level

Filter Results

35 artworks on view.

Results

A woman pushes aside a deep golden yellow curtain that fills three-quarters of this nearly square painting. The curtain runs on a rod parallel and close to the top of the canvas, extends off the right edge, and falls behind a bed covered in the same color. The bed is cropped by the bottom and left edges of the painting, and a brown, arched wood footboard almost reaches the right side. The woman stands on the far side of the bed, facing away from us as she pulls at the curtain with her right hand. She wears a navy-blue dress and a brown braid falls down her back. She reveals an area covered in a pink, green, and white floral pattern that seems to match the size of the curtain, at least along the left edge where it is exposed. A round mirror hangs on the floral-patterned area above a red piece of furniture, perhaps a small table or stool. The wall around the patterned area and curtain is painted bone white. A line incised in the paint running from the top left corner of the floral area to the top edge of the canvas suggests a crack in the wall. The paint is loosely applied so brushstrokes are visible throughout, especially in the floral pattern. The artist’s signature is painted in red in the lower left corner: "E. Vuillard."

The Yellow Curtain

Edouard Vuillard

c. 1893

Oil on canvas  Accession ID  1970.17.95

On View: East Building Upper Level, Gallery E404
Download artwork
Three casts of human hands and forearms hang from the top edge of the right half of this horizontal abstract painting, which is divided vertically in two equal parts. The rectangular field to the left is mottled with steel and charcoal gray streaked with white and amethyst purple. The panel to the right is divided again so the top half is slightly larger than the bottom half. The bottom portion is painted with a pattern to resemble abstracted wood grain in nickel and slate gray. A stylized white cloth, perhaps a handkerchief, is painted to look as if hanging from a nail hammered into the wood paneling, to our left. The top portion seems to be layered with paintings and prints below and beneath the three arms. The three-dimensional arms hang from looped metal wires on metal hooks spaced along the top edge, coming about a quarter of the way down the overall composition. The peach-colored arms and hands are painted all over with irregular gray patches, creating a camouflage effect. They hang down so the open palms are flat against the canvas, the thumbs extended to our left. The top of the arm to our left is painted cherry red, the middle is painted canary yellow, and the right arm royal blue. The paint drips down the arms and splatters on the hands and on the faux wood panel below. Behind the hands, it appears that one of the artist’s prints hangs from two nails on the canvas, but this is also part of the painting. The illusionistic print has three horizontal bands of pine green, pumpkin orange, and violet purple crisscrossed with black lines. Seeming to hang behind it and under the right-most arm is a sheet of music overlapping another piece of paper printed with the letters “OHN C” and “THE PERILOUS.” Below, and filling the space between the illusionistic print and the wood panel, is a rectangular field of abstract gray and black swirling forms. The entire canvas is surrounded by a thin, amber-colored wood frame. A narrow wooden slat is attached with a hinge on the inner surface of the frame at the bottom right corner, so the slat runs up along and rests against the canvas near the rightmost edge of the frame. The artist signed the work with stenciled letters in pale gray in the lower right corner: “J. JOHNS ‘8.”

Perilous Night

Jasper Johns

1982

Encaustic and silkscreen on canvas with objects  Accession ID  1995.79.1

On View: East Building Upper Level, Gallery E403
Thickly painted, rectangular vertical and horizontal slabs in intense buttercup and mango yellow, shamrock and lime green, burnt orange, raspberry pink, and charcoal gray are layered in this nearly square, abstract composition. In the top half, shapes are smaller, closer together, and separated by strokes of moss green. In the bottom half, the shapes are larger and seem to float against a vivid orange background. Smaller swipes and dabs of cotton candy pink, plum purple, indigo blue, sea glass green, scarlet red, rust brown, and bright white are interspersed around the slabs. The artist signed and dated the painting in green paint in the lower right corner, “hans hofmann 57.”

Autumn Gold

Hans Hofmann

1957

Oil on canvas  Accession ID  1996.81.4

On View: East Building Upper Level, Gallery E403

Prison Bunk Beds

Martin Wong

c. 1988-1991

Acrylic on canvas  Accession ID  2024.144.1

On View: East Building Upper Level, Gallery E404
This sculpture is a flat, abstract yellow shape overlayed with straight lines. The overall shape is almost similar to a large yellow "H" shape, although what would be the horizontal line is very thick and stretches beyond the left vertical line. There appears to be a thin raised horizontal line slightly below center, creating two almost-symmetrical halves. The design resembles pieces of a puzzle or a simplified building structure.

Yellow Wall (Section I + II)

Robert Mangold

1964

Oil and acrylic on plywood and metal  Accession ID  2004.124.1

On View: East Building Upper Level, Gallery E404
A fine, dense marigold-yellow net weaves around dark dots in this horizontal, abstract painting. Most of the painting is yellow, and the spots are irregularly shaped, they vary in size, and they are loosely arranged in twelve columns. The columns bleed into each other to create undulating waves and swirls across the canvas.

Infinity Nets Yellow

Kusama Yayoi

1960

Oil on canvas  Accession ID  2002.37.1

On View: East Building Upper Level, Gallery E404
This painting shows three thin vertical lines - two white and one yellow - spaced out evenly against a green-yellow background. The yellow line is in the center of the painting, and is almost the same shade as the background, though slightly warmer. The two white lines are almost at the edges of the painting, with thin strips of the background color between them and the sides. The lines divide the canvas into vertical segments. The brushstrokes in the painting are visible, especially those in the background color, creating some small differences in tone.

Yellow Painting

Barnett Newman

1949

Oil on canvas  Accession ID  1988.57.3

On View: East Building Upper Level, Gallery E404
This painting depicts a collage of abstract shapes and lines forming various patterns and figures. There are many overlapping sections, each containing a blend of swirls and geometric shapes, with many containing forms resembling abstract human faces. Some of the faces look at us, while others look off to the sides. Other segments contain abstract shapes or scribbled lines. Each segment contains distinct colors and styles, from bold contrasting blocks of bright color to more subdued earth tones and monochromatic sketches. The colors that dominate the painting are brown, white, pink, red, yellow, and light blue, with small areas of green and dark blue.

La ronde des images

Jean Dubuffet

1977

Acrylic on paper on canvas  Accession ID  1996.81.5

On View: East Building Upper Level, Gallery E403
This painting displays a series of nested squares, with each square framing the one within it. Slightly below center is a vibrant yellow square, enclosed by a larger gray square, which is encased by a light blue outer square. Brushstrokes are faintly visible in the painting, creating some slight differences in tone within each of the colors.

Study for Homage to the Square: Light Rising

Josef Albers

1950, altered 1959

Oil on wood fiberboard  Accession ID  1992.28.1

On View: East Building Upper Level, Gallery E403
Orange-red and battleship-gray geometric forms are arranged in a loose grid in this vertical, abstract painting. Made entirely of vertical and horizontal lines, the forms are reminiscent of letters or hieroglyphs. Sometimes the red forms seem to float in front of a gray background, but then the contrast will flip so the gray comes forward, creating a subtle optical illusion.

Untitled (Red and Gray)

Ad Reinhardt

1950

Oil on canvas  Accession ID  1992.28.3

On View: East Building Upper Level, Gallery E403

Untitled (Yellow and White)

Ad Reinhardt

1950

Oil on canvas  Accession ID  1992.28.2

On View: East Building Upper Level, Gallery E403
Narrow, horizontal bands of oyster white, pale blue, and faint peach, separated by denim-blue lines like a ruled sheet of paper, fill this square painting. The white, peach, and blue bands do not make a pattern, and there are a few areas where several white rows are clustered, including along the bottom edge.

Untitled #2

Agnes Martin

1981

Acrylic and blue pencil on canvas  Accession ID  1992.28.6

On View: East Building Upper Level, Gallery E403

Loading Results