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Image Not Available for Untitled
Untitled
Image Not Available for Untitled

Untitled

Artist/Maker (American, b. 1949)
Date1993
MediumWatercolor, inks and wax on watercolor paper in hand-painted and waxed wooden frame
DimensionsFrame: 11 7/16 × 9 1/16 in. (29 × 23 cm)
Credit LineArt Museum Gift Fund
Edition64/100
Object number1994.60
Status
On view
Copyright© Ross BlecknerMore Information
Amid the AIDS crisis in New York in the 1980s, Bleckner developed a mode of painting hazy forms, whether dots, birds, or flowers, like this one. His paintings offer the sensation of examining something under a microscope, but the proximity brings ambiguity rather than clarity. Set against dark backgrounds, these meditations on loss and grief become memento mori—reminders of the inevitability of death. Bleckner comments, “The way I chose to address [AIDS] was by making certain elements of my work act as memorials… I try to think about it in a way that documents images that are symbolic of the loss we feel—the loss of people and the loss of a certain relationship to culture.”
Exhibition History
Purchase Party Exhibition
  • Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (November 23, 1994 - December 15, 1994 )
The Body, The Host: HIV / AIDS and Christianity
  • Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (January 20, 2024 - December 15, 2024 )
Collections
  • Modern & Contemporary
  • On View