About This Artwork
Brice Marden
American, born 1938
Rodeo1971
Oil and wax on two canvases
243.8 x 243.8 cm (96 x 96 in.)
Ada S. Garrett Prize Fund; estate of Katharine Kuh; through prior gift of Mrs. Henry C. Woods; gift of Lannan Foundation, 1997.160
During the past four decades, Brice Marden has played a key role in maintaining the vitality of abstract painting. Rodeo, a work of imposing scale and stark presence, represents a high point of his early career. Each of the two rectangular canvas panels—joined to form an eight-foot square—is pulled across a deep stretcher and painted with a combination of oil and beeswax. The stretchers and thick, opaque pigment give Rodeo a sense of weight and a sculptural presence. The artist laid multiple layers of the oil and wax mixture over his canvas panels, adding an extraordinary sense of tactility to this relatively simple composition. The line joining the two panels may suggest a horizon line, and thus a landscape.