Phocis Pole
2017 - Painting (Painting)
82.2 x 133 x 3.2 cm
Rebecca Quaytman
R. H. Quaytman’s family on her father’s side is of Jewish heritage from Poland. In the summer of 2016, Quaytman traveled to Poland to research an upcoming retrospective exhibition taking place in Warsaw and ?ódz, the town from which her great-grandfather emigrated to the United States. Tracing her grandfather’s and great-grandfather’s origins, Phocis Pole is from a series of paintings that explores her paternal lineage. Both men died in 1940 in a car accident in which they were hit by a Long Island Railroad train. During the research trip, Quaytman journeyed to the grounds of the World War II concentration camp in Treblinka and took a series of photographs. The landscape depicted in this painting is based on those photographs. They function as the background to a mystical and intimidating fire that animates memories of this period. The artwork’s name is a reference to the historical region of central Greece named Phocis, which controlled the oracle at Delphi, which was consulted on important decisions throughout the ancient classical world. In this painting, Quaytman attempts to freeze different temporal strata on the same ground in order to blur visual perception, conjuring something ancient about the work. The artist’s investigations of photographic archives are employed as source material for the imagery in her paintings. The archival time spans, the screen-printing, how the work takes its form, the materialization of the object are all superimposed in this work. In her book Spine, Quaytman writes that “My central concern was: What happens when the source of what is depicted disappears and is replaced by a painting.”
In her work, Rebecca Quaytman displays great interest in the dissolution of the image. Expressing the progressive disappearance of representation takes various forms. The artist attempts to freeze different temporal strata on one same ground in order to blur visual perception. Her works are always the result of research that creates links with the historical context of the exhibition space, and take place within her larger body of already existing work which is grouped in chapters. Quaytman’s investigations in the archives, photographic ones in particular, of the institutions who invite her, are generally the source of the images which are then used in her paintings. Screen-printed onto wooden panels, in dimensions that respect the golden rule, covered in gesso, reframed, enlarged, sometimes sprinkled with diamond dust, they have something ancient about them. The near pointillist weft recalls the printing techniques of the 1960s and the large pixels in Kara Walker or Wade Guyton’s work. Though everything is perfectly controlled, our eye hesitates. The archival time spans, the screen-printing, how the work takes its form, the materialization of the object (framing devices) are all superimposed during the ephemeral exhibition, and its aftermath.
Colors:
Related works sharing similar palette
© » KADIST
Shimabuku
2006For the two-channel work Asking the Repentistas – Peneira & Sonhador – to remix my octopus works Shimabuku asked two Brazilian street singers to compose a ballad about his previous works with octopi (in which he created traditional Japanese ceramic vessels to catch octopi, with a fisherman who took him on his boat to test them out as we can see on one of the channel)...
© » KADIST
Frieda Toranzo Jaeger
2017This triptych is based on a Tesla whose interior the artist customized on the Tesla website...
© » KADIST
Emilija Škarnulyte
2013In the video, the artist follows her grandmother, Aldona, during her daily walk through the Grutas Park in Lithuania...
© » HYPERALLERGIC
Archaeologists Find Evidence of Hallucinogenic Drug in Ancient Rome Skip to content A bust of Emperor Trajan surrounded by black henbane seends and flowers and a femur discovered by archaeologists (edit Valentina Di Liscia/ Hyperallergic ) Two new archaeological finds suggest Roman subjects at the northern edge of the ancient empire used a hallucinogenic and poisonous plant called black henbane, the effects of which were described by Greek philosopher Plutarch as “not so properly called drunkenness” but rather “alienation of mind or madness.” Dutch zooarchaeologists Maaike Groot and Martijn van Haasteren and archaeobotanist Laura I...
© » KADIST
Juan Covelli
2021El Salto (The Jump/The Waterfall) by Juan Covelli depicts the Salto de Tequendama, a waterfall located on the outskirts of southwest Bogota...
© » KADIST
Firenze Lai
2013Central Station, Alignment, and Argument are “situation portraits” that present whimsical characters within distorted and troubling worlds...
© » KADIST
Martin Boyce
2003In the installation Our Love is like the Flowers, the Rain, the Sea and the Hours, Martin Boyce uses common elements from public gardens – trees, benches, trashbins– in a game which describes at once a social space and an abstract dream space...
© » KADIST
Burak Delier
2013Burak Delier’s sculpture Homage to Balotelli’s Missed Trick is a symbol of resistance to the demand for success and performance...
© » KADIST
Gilad Ratman
2014Originally a multi-channel video installation with sculptures and sound, this iteration of The Workshop by Gilad Ratman is a three-channel distillation of the expansive project that follows a group’s underground pilgrimage from Mt...
© » ART & OBJECT
Artist Rejected from Venice Biennale Polish Pavilion Says He was Censored | Art & Object Skip to main content Subscribe to our free e-letter! Webform Your Email Address Role Art Collector/Enthusiast Artist Art World Professional Academic Country USA Afghanistan Albania Algeria American Samoa Andorra Angola Anguilla Antarctica Antigua & Barbuda Argentina Armenia Aruba Ascension Island Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bermuda Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia & Herzegovina Botswana Bouvet Island Brazil British Indian Ocean Territory British Virgin Islands Brunei Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Canada Canary Islands Cape Verde Caribbean Netherlands Cayman Islands Central African Republic Ceuta & Melilla Chad Chile China Christmas Island Clipperton Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Colombia Comoros Congo - Brazzaville Congo - Kinshasa Cook Islands Costa Rica Croatia Cuba Curaçao Cyprus Czechia Côte d’Ivoire Denmark Diego Garcia Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Eswatini Ethiopia Falkland Islands Faroe Islands Fiji Finland France French Guiana French Polynesia French Southern Territories Gabon Gambia Georgia Germany Ghana Gibraltar Greece Greenland Grenada Guadeloupe Guam Guatemala Guernsey Guinea Guinea-Bissau Guyana Haiti Heard & McDonald Islands Honduras Hong Kong SAR China Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iran Iraq Ireland Isle of Man Israel Italy Jamaica Japan Jersey Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Kosovo Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Laos Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Libya Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macao SAR China Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania Mauritius Mayotte Mexico Micronesia Moldova Monaco Mongolia Montenegro Montserrat Morocco Mozambique Myanmar (Burma) Namibia Nauru Nepal Netherlands Netherlands Antilles New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria Niue Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Islands North Korea North Macedonia Norway Oman Outlying Oceania Pakistan Palau Palestinian Territories Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Pitcairn Islands Poland Portugal Puerto Rico Qatar Romania Russia Rwanda Réunion Samoa San Marino Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Sint Maarten Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia South Africa South Georgia & South Sandwich Islands South Korea South Sudan Spain Sri Lanka St...
© » KADIST
Laura Hyunjhee Kim for Neon Was Never Brighter: A Glimpse Into the Future For the first outdoor contemporary art festival in Chinatown, San Francisco, Neon Was Never Brighter: A Glimpse Into the Future , in collaboration with Chinatown Media & Arts Collaborative (CMAC) and curator Candace Huey, KADIST San Francisco co-presents a new performance, Cosmocrane (2022) by Laura Hyunjhee Kim...
© » KADIST
Gaëlle Choisne
2015Entre Chien et Loup is an installation incorporating a variety of media: rubber, discs, feathers and confetti that the artist weaves, sews and glues together...
© » KADIST
Li Xiaofei
Combined into a single two-channel HD video, Li Xiaofei’s Ponytail and Chongming Island II are silent portraits of the women assembly line workers at a Chinese kitchenware factory...
© » KADIST
Halil Altindere, Carlos Amorales, Alexandre Arrechea, Yael Bartana, Rodrigo Braga, Aslan Gaisumov, Igor Grubic, Jason Hendrik Hansma, Oded Hirsch, Binelde Hyrcan, Angelica Mesiti, Deimantas Narkevicius, Jakrawal Nilthamrong, Jun Nguyen-Hatsushiba, Enrique Ramírez, Chulayarnnon Siriphol, Finger Pointing Worker, Guan Xiao Munchhausen trilemma is a thought experiment used to demonstrate the impossibility of proving any truth...
© » KQED
How the Remixed American ‘Cowboy’ Became the Breakout Star of 2023 | KQED Skip to Nav Skip to Main Skip to Footer NPR How the Remixed American ‘Cowboy’ Became the Breakout Star of 2023 Brittany Luse Dec 13 Save Article Save Article Failed to save article Please try again Facebook Share-FB Twitter Share-Twitter Email Share-Email Copy Link Copy Link Beyoncé donned a cowboy hat for the limited edition cover of ‘Renaissance.’ (Parkwood Entertainment/ Columbia Records) When it came to some of the most urgent and enduring pop culture of 2023, the cowboy was center stage...