Accession Number
2008/2.255

Title
Continuous

Artist(s)
Edda Renouf

Object Creation Date
1976

Medium & Support
acrylic on canvas

Dimensions
16 3/8 x 16 3/16 in. (41.5 x 41 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
Edda Renouf
United States, born 1943
Continuous
1976
Acrylic on canvas
2008/2.255

Subject matter
Although the main subject of Renouf’s paintings is an almost mystical involvement with the physical materials of painting, she has said about her work:
“Some of the sources of inspiration that have become recurrent themes in my work are the four natural elements; time and memory; and that of sound and music. The linen canvas and paper originate from the flax and cotton plants, which depend on the four natural elements; also the acrylic paint and pastels originate from earth. The four elements are in this way directly related to my material’s structure and are thus often used in the titles of the works. For example, the abstract structures revealed to me are metaphors, signs that relate to air, water, earth and fire (sun). The signs appear with the removing and reapplying of threads, and are related to corresponding colors: greys and grey-blues in varying tones are reminiscent of air; cobalt and ultramarine blues of water; siennas, oxide red, oranges and yellow-ochres of the earth, fire and sun....
My works are thus a record of the days, weeks, months and seasons when they were created becoming a journal of my working process, while at the same time their structures and signs relate to thoughts and memory; to music and sound, themes that point to the idea of ‘making the invisible visible’ thereby revealing the movement and hidden presence of wave structures in our universe and again the abstract energy within my materials.” (artist’s statement (2009), http://www.eddarenouf.com/Statement.html)

Physical Description
Several thin coats of blue-gray acrylic paint have been applied to primed linen canvas whose weave was altered by removing threads at more or less regular intervals. She then carefully sanded down the paint to highlight the new texture and make “visible the life within the linen material.” (artist’s statement (2009), http://www.eddarenouf.com/Statement.html)

Primary Object Classification
Painting

Primary Object Type
abstract

Collection Area
Modern and Contemporary

Rights
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Keywords
Abstract (fine arts style)
Color-field
basket weave
journals (accounts)
music (performing arts)
shaped canvases
texture (physical attribute)