Ravencrest

Grace Hartigan was a leader in the second generation of Abstract Expressionist painters.
In her work she successfully united the free, gestural and expressive brushwork of her
colleagues from the 1950s with a return to figurative painting which characterized much
of the art of the 1960s. "I have found my subject," Hartigan wrote. "It concerns that
which is vulgar and vital in American modern life, and the possibilities of its transcendence
into the beautiful."

The artist painted Ravencrest after a trip to the Rocky Mountains, filling the canvas with
a jumble of cliched images. You might find it interesting to compare Hartigan's humorous
and ironic treat of the "Wild West" with Jaune Quick-to-See Smith's exploration of related
issues further along in these galleries.

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