Accession Number
2008/2.252

Title
Glasses (Double Twice Group)

Artist(s)
Lucio Pozzi

Object Creation Date
1973

Medium & Support
graphite, gouache, charcoal, and acrylic on paper

Dimensions
15 x 14 1/8 in. (38 x 35.8 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
Lucio Pozzi
United States, born 1935
Glasses
1973
Graphite, gouache, charcoal, and acrylic
2008/2.252

Subject matter
The title suggests that this abstract watercolor sketch is a study of a glass of water abstracted into elemental shapes and color effects. As one reviewer explains, “All of Pozzi's work ultimately relates to the language of painting…. [E]ach thing that he makes, in addition to being a self-contained entity, is also, in some sense, a fragment, a part of an ongoing process.” (Richard Kalina, “Lucio Pozzi at John Weber,” Art in America, Dec 1996)
Going against the descriptiveness of the title, however, Pozzi has stated: “My painting doesn’t start from any premise other than the analysis of its own elementary characteristics. It does not include in its combination of elements outside premises such as mathematics, vegetation, primitive cultures, modern publicity, traditional symbolism, the esoteric or the occult. It is not at the service of anything, it doesn’t represent anything.” (cited in Bret Waller, Works from the Collection of Dorothy and Herbert Vogel exh. cat., University of Michigan Museum of Art)

Physical Description
One of four paintings in the series Glasses (Double Twice Group). Skinny upright rectangle with rounded edges in dark pencil at center, filled in with sheer orange wash. Translucent mint green wash covers most of the orange, except for a semicircle visible at the top. The colored areas extend beyond the penciled-in borders.

Primary Object Classification
Painting

Primary Object Type
study

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
Abstract (fine arts style)
Conceptual
Minimal
drinking glasses
watercolors (paintings)