Description

Autumn Wave (2012). Edition of 175. 15 colour screen print on Rives BFK. 62 x 43 cm (24.5 x 17 in). Signed, numbered and dated by the artist on the front. £1,020.00. With its popping palette of avocado and carrot, swimming-pool blue, fruity stains and psychedelic day-glo, this abstract composition of jaunty polygonal shapes rendered in exuberant brushstrokes spilling over their tarry black outlines, 'Autumn Wave' (2013) brims with all the directness and unabashed joie de vivre of the artist's best work. Mary Heilmann has been described as using "20th century art history as her personal toy box" and indeed here are elements of Colour Field painting and Minimalism, injected with a distinctive punky and revitalising energy. This playful approach has long been a characteristic of Heilmann's work: "When I was about seven, I went away to camp and our art counsellor taught us how to do 'Modern Art' by drawing loopy lines around and around the page and then filling the loops in with different colours. I never forgot that." Elating and airy, 'Autumn Wave' reflects the artist's broader philosophical disposition - a pluralistic, anti-hierarchical stance.