Purple Mekle Lippis
In 1959, Olitski began staining canvas in the manner of Morris Louis and Kenneth Noland. Clement Greenberg included Olitski among the artists he grouped together under the rubric “post-painterly abstraction.” Mekle Lippis is Old Scots for “huge lips,” taken from ribald verses by William Dunbar (ca. 1450–ca. 1520).
Artwork Details
- Title: Purple Mekle Lippis
- Artist: Jules Olitski (American (born Ukraine), Snovsk 1922–2007 New York)
- Date: 1961
- Medium: Acrylic on canvas
- Dimensions: 80 × 66 1/8 in. (203.2 × 168 cm)
- Classification: Paintings
- Credit Line: The Muriel Kallis Steinberg Newman Collection, Gift of Muriel Kallis Newman, 2006
- Object Number: 2006.32.50
- Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art
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