The New Chancery of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow
The New Chancery Collection
Pat Steir
Pat Steir's work defies easy characterization, although it includes elements of minimalist and conceptual art. Stier began exhibiting in the 1970's, using minimalist abstraction in lone brush strokes and crossed-out icons, but in the 1980's she began using a technique closer to action painting, said to show the feminist side of the style. Instead of the controlled flinging and splattering of Jackson Pollock, she allows the paint to drip down the canvas, finding its own paths. The five waterfall paintings commissioned by the Art in Embassies Program are in this style: white paint allowed to migrate down black canvases on its own course. Each painting is impressionist, attempting to evoke an actual waterfall in a different place. This waterfall series is an example of Steir's use of abstract expressionism in an effort to make one see everyday things in a new way.
Albuquerque
2000
Oil on canvas; 84 x 144 in.
Boston
2000
Oil on canvas; 84 x 144 in.
Carolina
2000
Oil on canvas; 84 x 144 in.
Dakota
2000
Oil on canvas; 84 x 144 in.
Georgia
2000
Oil on canvas; 84 x 144 in.