Skip to Content
Today Open today 11–8

Relief

A work made of painted wood relief.

Image actions

  • A work made of painted wood relief.

Date:

1937

Artist:

Charles Green Shaw
American, 1892–1974

About this artwork

Relief exemplifies Charles Green Shaw’s conviction that a work of art did not require a subject to evoke an aesthetic response. Composed of a cascading arrangement of biomorphic forms, this striking wood construction conveys the compositional balance and rhythm that Shaw, an early member of the American Abstract Artists group, sought in his nonobjective works. Equally important, Relief is neither a painting nor a sculpture, but rather a hybrid of the two. The wood pieces enter the viewer’s space even as the work remains attached to the wall, the traditional realm of painting. Relief can therefore be seen as part of the ongoing modernist endeavor to challenge the two-dimensionality of the picture plane.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Arts of the Americas

Artist

Charles Green Shaw

Title

Relief

Place

United States (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

Made 1937

Medium

Painted wood relief

Inscriptions

Signed and dated on verso: Charles G. Shaw 1937

Dimensions

121.9 × 152.4 cm (48 × 60 in.)

Credit Line

Through prior acquisition of the George F. Harding Collection

Reference Number

2006.81

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

Share

Sign up for our enewsletter to receive updates.

Learn more

Image actions

Share