About this artwork
In Wrigley’s, Charles Green Shaw depicted a package of spearmint gum against a series of rectangular forms that suggests the Lower Manhattan skyline; the levitating, rotating rectangle of the gum echoes the blocky, static shapes of the vertical skyscrapers. Shaw, an early advocate of nonobjective art in the United States, painted Wrigley’s as a speculative advertising pitch pairing abstraction with commercial art. Although an advertising poster was never produced, the witty juxtapositions of Shaw’s design align Wrigley’s gum with the breathtaking modernity of skyscrapers and the excitement of urban life.
-
Status
- On View, Gallery 262
-
Department
- Arts of the Americas
-
Artist
- Charles Green Shaw
-
Title
- Wrigley's
-
Place
- New York City (Object made in)
-
Date
- 1937
-
Medium
- Oil on canvas
-
Inscriptions
- Signed l.r.: Shaw
-
Dimensions
- 76.2 × 114.3 cm (30 × 45 in.)
-
Credit Line
- Purchased with funds provided by the Alsdorf Foundation
-
Reference Number
- 1978.417