Accession Number
2008/2.243

Title
Pop Dots

Artist(s)
Barbara Levine

Object Creation Date
1988

Medium & Support
oil on modeling compound-covered Styrofoam

Dimensions
8 x 6 1/2 x 4 1/2 in. (20.32 x 16.51 x 11.43 cm)

Credit Line
The Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection: Fifty Works for Fifty States, a joint initiative of the Trustees of the Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection and the Nation Gallery of Art, with generous support from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Institute for Museum and Library Services

Label copy
Barbara Levine
United States, born 1953
Pop Dots
1988
Oil on Styrofoam modeling ground
2008/2.243

Subject matter
The artist describes her work as “a hybridization of painting and sculpture…. The sources of imagery have developed from purely formal abstraction to investigations of Indian and subsequently Pre-Columbian sources. The work melds painting and sculptural form sometimes enhancing the three dimensional and other times obscuring it.” (artist’s statement, http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/yourgallery/artist_profile/Jill+Levine/44692.html) This work is an example of “purely formal abstraction,” although its shape and bright color are reminiscent of sea coral.

Physical Description
Abstract shape rendered in Styrofoam that has been covered with modeling compound. Base with four columns, three of which have “pop dots” attached to them. Partially painted a bright minty green, which gets darker in the “back” of the sculpture (the side that doesn’t have dots).

Primary Object Classification
Sculpture

Primary Object Type
modeling

Collection Area
Modern and Contemporary

Rights
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please visit http://umma.umich.edu/request-image for more information and to fill out the online Image Rights and Reproductions Request Form.

Keywords
Pop (fine arts styles)
atolls
bastarda
biomorphic abstraction
dots