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Between and Mortarboard

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63 Items in this Learning Collection
Now the Dove and the Leopard Wrestle
At the center of the painting, two animals meet: a horse and a bull. Painted in a variety of colors, the two animals are abstracted in a Cubist style. The painting is signed (u.r.) in black paint "Bearden". 
Collection Object
Salome (John the Baptist)
Four people are gathered around a white table in the foreground. A nude woman on the right holds the head of a man on a gray platter. The man's body is in the bottom right corner of the print with a red trail at the neck. Across from the woman is a man in a red garmet with black and yellow stripes, and a tan cap with a red and blue stripe. Across the table are two other figures and in the background to the right stand two men in blue, much smaller than the figures around the table.
Collection Object
Untitled
A horizontal lighbox enclosed by a wide, black molded frame in which Kara Walker's signature silhouettes are encased in linen and lit from behind. Silhouettes represent four figures: a man and child at viewer's left, two women at right.
Collection Object
One of five prints from the suite "The Means to an End--A Shadow Drama in Five Acts"

Collection Object
One of five prints from the suite "The Means to an End--A Shadow Drama in Five Acts"

Collection Object
One of five prints from the suite "The Means to an End--A Shadow Drama in Five Acts"

Collection Object
One of five prints from the suite "The Means to an End--A Shadow Drama in Five Acts"

Collection Object
One of five prints from the suite "The Means to an End--A Shadow Drama in Five Acts"

Collection Object
Freedom, a Fable
This pop-up book has laser-cut black silhouettes on white paper. Text contrasts with background; white text on black pages, black text on white pages. There is a ship embossed on the cover of the book.
Collection Object
Untitled
White glazed porcelain pitcher with two different black silhouette faces in profile, one on each side.
Collection Object
Hiroshima Series

Collection Object
Hiroshima Series

Collection Object
New York in Transit I
In this long horizontally oriented print, we see multiple people of various colors on a subway car; some sit and others stand holding onto subway poles. Windows show various scenes- a plane in the sky, men playing basketball, fish, musicians, and a small group of people walking with a flag. 
Collection Object
Builders (The Family)
The color screenprint depicts four dark skinned figures walking past a construction site—likely a family. The man is dressed in a black suit, black shoes, yellow tie, and tan hat. The woman wears a red and white dress, yellow jacket, and red cap. The little girl stands to the left of mother, holding her hand. She wears a yellow dress, white tights, brown shoes, and a red cap. A small boy wears brown pants, tan shoes, a yellow shirt, and blue jacket. He stands to the right of the father and holds his hand.  <br /><br /> In the background, there are three men working at the construction site. There are two men in blue jumpsuits, one has dark skin and the other white. A third dark skinned man wears a gray jumpsuit and holds a saw. The print is signed and dated (l.r.) "Jacob Lawrence 1974" in pencil.
Collection Object
Five Builders with Tool Box

Collection Object
Harriet and the Promised Land No. 15: Canada Bound

Collection Object
Hiroshima Series

Collection Object
Hiroshima Series

Collection Object
Two Builders Playing Chess

Collection Object
Hiroshima Series

Collection Object
Hiroshima Series

Collection Object
Hiroshima Series

Collection Object
Hiroshima Series

Collection Object
Ten Builders

Collection Object
New York in Transit II

Collection Object
Champions
Eight male figures (three kneeling in front and five standing in back) wearing orange tank tops and white shorts face the viewer; two basketballs and five trophies between figures in the foreground. Figures stand in front of a background of fragmented, arched and circular areas of color in blues and golds.
Collection Object
After Manet
This image is a circular format black and white photograph depicting four young African American girls wearing floral dresses lounging on a blanket in the grass. Three girls sit or prop themselves up and look at the camera, the fourth girl lays down, with her eyes closed. The glass in the frame has a domed surface, creating a fish-eye effect.
Collection Object
Malcolm X Speaks for Us
This print is composed of sets of faces in three registers.  Along the top, in a black stripe, is a repeated, closely cropped image of a woman's face looking to the left.  In the middle left are five repeated images in shades of brown of a woman's face looking right, toward the face of a man in black.  Along the bottom are three large images of a woman's face in green, brown and blue.
Collection Object
III
A rectangular wooden box containing ceramic, rubber, and bronze wishbones encased in felt. A lithographed felt card rests on top of the wishbones. The text on the felt card reads: Wish #1 Wish # 2 Wish #3. The box top is engraved with "III" on the front. 
Collection Object
The Couple in Raccoon Coats
This is a photograph of an African American couple. A man sits inside his car, while a woman stands just outside, as if she is about to sit in the passenger seat. They both wear large raccoon coats. 
Collection Object
Model
A studio portrait of a young African American woman in 1920s apparel, including a short hairstyle, stockings, necklace, and dress. She stands with her left leg resting on a bench with her right arm akimbo.
Collection Object
Untitled
A hexagonal canvas with multi-colored lines breaking the surface into three individual, identically-sized sections. Two of the sections are primarily green and one is primarily gray.&nbsp;
Collection Object
Untitled

Collection Object
Untitled Cube
A framework three-dimensional cube sits at an angle so that one of its corners appears to protrude from the center of the piece. The cube is gray, with dark gray shading on the shadowed edges, and dark and light yellow shading on the lit edges. The canvas is cut to the dimensions of the cube.
Collection Object
Footprint to Perforated Volume

Collection Object
Aluminum Anodizing

Collection Object
Alber's Chain

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Phelps

Collection Object
Elegy #6

Collection Object
Untitled
This work is an abstract composition on paper with deckled edges. The drawing is signed and dated (l.r.) in pencil "Sam Gilliam '71".
Collection Object
B. Footprint Choreography
This is a series of eleven photographs in a grid of four rows and three columns.  The photographs are of a spiral shaped metallic sculpture against an off white sheet. Some spirals have blue and yellow accents. In the top right corner there is a floor plan of the Duderstadt center with labels for areas 1-5 and other details.
Collection Object
Alber's Chain
Multi-colored fabric pieces hung loosely together in a horizontal format. Colors include red, orange, blue, green, black, purple, pink and various other combinations of these colors.
Collection Object
CAD Drawings
A blue and black computer aided drafting (CAD) drawing of building with windows and columns, shrubs on the ground, and hanging plants.
Collection Object
Sample Anodized Aluminum with Screenprint
A white rectangular anodized aluminum plate with two laser-cut abstract designs.
Collection Object
Sample Anodized Aluminum with Screenprint
White rectangular anodized aluminum plate with two laser-cut abstract designs, and white, yellow, and blue screen-printed designs. The white designs reference the shape of the floorplan of the UM Duderstadt Center. 
Collection Object
D. Volume Study
This is a series of seven photos depicting a variety of hanging forms in an array of colors and black.  In some cases, paper in various colors is layered on top of the photos
Collection Object
Sample Anodized Aluminum with Screenprint
Blue anodized aluminum with two laser-cut abstract shapes and orange, yellow, and white screen-printed designs based on the shape of the floorplan of the UM Duderstadt Center.
Collection Object
A. Media Center
This piece rests in a wooden frame and consists of three photographs assembled in a cubist-like way. The photographs show the interior of the University of Michigan's Duderstadt Center. Honey comb-like laser cut transparencies seem to hang from the ceiling and black CAD drawings, and a small red triangle appears on the left side of work.The artist and another man are shown in the lower right corner looking at these decorative additions to the building. 
Collection Object
Sample Anodized Aluminum with Screenprint
Blue anodized aluminum with two laser-cut abstract shapes and red, yellow, black, and white screen-printed designs, some based on the shape of the floorplan of the UM Duderstadt Center.
Collection Object
C. Color Study
Three prints mounted on paper with black backgrounds. Each print shows a large outline of the floor plan of the Duderstadt center filled with swatches of color over which is laid a grid of small outline floor plans of the Duderstadt center in black, looking like mishapen black polka dots.
Collection Object
Pulsar
This is a multi-colored abstract silkscreen print. The colors flow into one another and form organic shapes. This print is included in an artist's book. 
Collection Object
House Through Trees (Yaddo)

Collection Object
Composition

Collection Object
Street Scene
This is a brightly colored oil painting of a street scene. Buildings are depicted in pink, yellow, and white.  A lavender and blue sky with white and yellow clouds makes up the background. Two women stand in the lower left corner; another woman and a black dog are seen on the right side. The ground is made up of patches of white, yellow, pink, and blue.  Thick black outlines are used throughout and the paint has been applied in a very thick and factured manner. Traces of newspaper appear to have been laid on the painting while it was still wet and became stuck and are visible in the clouds at the top and in the white portion of the central building, just under the street lamp.
Collection Object
Dotty Wotty 2

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Dotty Wotty 1

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Dotty-Wotty House

Collection Object
The Birthday Dress

Collection Object
Dotty-Wotty House

Collection Object
Untitled
This sculpture consists of a red bird cage stand with a half-circle red cage on top. Inside the cage, there is a plastic green, yellow and red airplane toy hanging from the top. There is a white and black figure inside the plane. The work is signed by the artist in black paint at the base: "Tyree Guyton".
Collection Object
Untitled (bird cage, re-lynching)
A splatter painted bird cage stand with a rounded top cage on top in red, green, orange, white and blue. There is mesh on one side of the bottom of the cage that is also splatter painted. Inside the cage hanging from the top is a small bell, part of an American flag and a replica of a human penis, painted black, hanging upside down.
Collection Object
Untitled (Paint Cans)
A "Norton Abrasives" wooden crate is filled with empty rusted gallon paint containers with dried paint inside. A cracked rearview mirror is attached to one side and an American flag is smushed into one side of the box. A small toy platypus sits inside one of the paint cans, although the platypus is moveable; instructions to museum state that museum staff can place platypus where they please.
Collection Object
Ups and Downs
Two abstracted, bust-length figures, one male and one female, look directly at the viewer with large smiles. The background is tan, and filled with swirling lines and scribbles. The face and eyes of each figure are outlined in thick green, the mouths in thick yellow. The “whites” of the eyes are red, while the pupils are circles of pale purple. Purple paint drips down from the eyes of the male figure, while the paint on the female figure drips upward.
Collection Object

Copyright
All Rights Reserved ()

Ups and Downs

Two abstracted, bust-length figures, one male and one female, look directly at the viewer with large smiles. The background is tan, and filled with swirling lines and scribbles. The face and eyes of each figure are outlined in thick green, the mouths in thick yellow. The “whites” of the eyes are red, while the pupils are circles of pale purple. Purple paint drips down from the eyes of the male figure, while the paint on the female figure drips upward.
Zoom
Accession Number
2002/1.202

Title
Ups and Downs

Artist(s)
Tyree Guyton

Artist Nationality
American (North American)

Object Creation Date
1994

Medium & Support
acrylic on masonite

Dimensions
25 13/16 in x 49 3/4 in (65.56 cm x 126.37 cm);25 5/8 in x 49 5/8 in (65.09 cm x 126.05 cm)

Credit Line
Gift of The Daniel and Harriet Fusfeld Folk Art Collection

Label copy
March 28, 2009
Grandpa was a housepainter. When I was eight years old, he stuck
a paintbrush in my hand. I felt as if I was holding a magic wand.
—Tyree Guyton
In Ups and Downs, Tyree Guyton forges a simple but memorable image of a male and female figure that addresses a universal issue—the ups and downs of life. Guyton’s work is animated by his faith in art’s ability to connect people and motivate social change. He is most well known for the Heidelberg Project, a multi-media installation begun in 1986 that transformed the streets, buildings and grounds of a neighborhood in one of the most economically and socially challenged areas of his native Detroit. The motif of faces is a recurring one in the Heidelberg Project and Guyton’s other work. Combining bold abstract painting—in the style represented by the work on view—with recycled materials of all kinds from car hoods to children’s toys, the Heidelberg Project brought national and international attention to Guyton as well as positive change to this depressed neighborhood.
Trained as a painter at Detroit’s Center for Creative Studies, Guyton was particularly influenced by the work of Pablo Picasso and Lester Johnson—both represented in UMMA’s Modern and Contemporary Galleries—as well as that of his teacher, Charles McGee, and Andy Warhol.

Subject matter
This Detroit-based artist is most well-known for his large-scale installation called "The Heidelberg Project." In “Ups and Downs," two figures, one male and one female, confront the viewer with large smiles. This work was part of a large series of works that depict single and paired figures, called "Faces." The work's title was derived from the purple “tears” that drip down the face of the male figure and upwards on the female figure. Guyton is most interested in thinking about composition more broadly as "to form by putting together." The two gendered figures come together, with juxtaposing directional elements. 

Physical Description
Two abstracted, bust-length figures, one male and one female, look directly at the viewer with large smiles. The background is tan, and filled with swirling lines and scribbles. The face and eyes of each figure are outlined in thick green, the mouths in thick yellow. The “whites” of the eyes are red, while the pupils are circles of pale purple. Purple paint drips down from the eyes of the male figure, while the paint on the female figure drips upward.

Primary Object Classification
Painting

Primary Object Type
portrait

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)
African American
Figures
figures (representations)
folk art (traditional art)
found objects
men (male humans)
mouths
outsider art
tear (secretion)
women (female humans)

24 Related Resources

& Author Notes

All Rights Reserved