Untitled (BP Landscape)

© Josephine Meckseper

Untitled (BP Landscape)

Currently not on view

Untitled (BP Landscape),

2010

Josephine Meckseper, born 1964, Lilienthal, Germany; active New York, NY
2011-34 e
The title of Josephine Meckseper's BP Landscapes refers to the explosion in 2010 of the British Petroleum rig Deepwater Horizon, and the subsequent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. However, these small, colorful works appear more contemplative than apocalyptic. Rather than allegorizing a major environmental disaster, they seem to continue the Modernist investigation of abstraction, gestural marks, and the expressive potential of materials. This contradiction between what is named and what is seen is likely is the point: the works' lines and colors, which are similar to those produced at sunset in heavily polluted cities, might suggest that the formal language of painting is unequal to the representation of ecological disaster.

Information

Title
Untitled (BP Landscape)
Dates

2010

Maker
Josephine Meckseper
Medium
Acrylic
Dimensions
36 x 26 cm (14 3/16 × 10 1/4 in.)
Credit Line
Museum purchase, Laura P. Hall Memorial Fund
Object Number
2011-34 e
Signatures
Signed and dated in graphite, on verso lower right: J. Meckseper | 2010
Culture
German, American
Period
modern American styles and periods
Type
paintings, drawings
Materials
acrylic paint, wove paper
Subject
disasters, abstraction, stripes, pollution, landscapes (representations)

[Galerie Reinhard Hauff, Stuttgart, Germany], sold; to Princeton University Art Museum, 2011.

IIIF manifest

The International Image Interoperability Framework, or IIIF, is an open standard for delivering high-quality, attributed digital objects online at scale. Visit iiif.io to learn more.

Open API URL

Our API is generally designed to provide programmatic access to the Museum's collections data for applications that require regular updates and/or the ability to dynamically query and filter the data via the endpoints provided.

Share your feedback with us

The Museum regularly researches its objects and their collecting histories, updating its records to reflect new information. We also strive to catalogue works of art using language that is consistent with how people, subjects, artists, and cultures describe themselves. As this effort is ongoing, the Museum’s records may be incomplete or contain terms that are no longer acceptable. We welcome your feedback, questions, and additional information that you feel may be useful to us. Email us at collectionsinfo@princeton.edu.

Explore More

Celebrating American Art at Princeton

Princeton Collects

Mosaic Restaurant