Untitled

“My work stems from previous painting and little else,” stated Dennis Ashbaugh in 1979. This is true of Untitled. But in the late 1980s, the artist took a turn and began representing laboratory analysis of chromatography, the scientific process whereby genetic material separates to reveal molecules that make up DNA. He conveyed this process in paintings where gradations of color reference this molecular transformation. Ashbaugh’s attention to color has persisted throughout his career, evident in the strokes of blue, purple, and red of Untitled.

In 1982 the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon, Portugal (the final exhibition venue of American Paintings: The Eighties) purchased Ashbaugh’s Coma-Mom, 1979, from the exhibition. Untitled, 1983, replaced it in the Shore’s collection.