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Sixteen Waterfalls of Dreams, Memories, and Sentiment

Pat Steir American
1990
Not on view
In the 1980s Steir developed a technique that involved applying paint exclusively by dripping and flinging it onto the canvas. Despite the freedom of execution and the large areas of canvas to be addressed, Steir exercises expert control over her methods, which she developed in part through in-depth study of Japanese and Chinese painting. The pouring process also evokes comparison with the work of Jackson Pollock—but rather than painting on the floor, Steir works from a ladder on unstretched canvas tacked to the wall, pouring and flinging paint, water, or solvent from oversaturated brushes and allowing the fluid media to cascade down the length of the support. As she has explained, "the paint itself makes the picture…. Gravity makes the image."

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Sixteen Waterfalls of Dreams, Memories, and Sentiment
  • Artist: Pat Steir (American, born Newark, New Jersey, 1940)
  • Date: 1990
  • Medium: Oil on canvas
  • Dimensions: 78 1/2 in. × 12 ft. 7 1/8 in. (199.4 × 383.9 cm)
  • Classification: Paintings
  • Credit Line: Kathryn E. Hurd Fund, by exchange, 2009
  • Object Number: 2009.473
  • Rights and Reproduction: © Pat Steir, New York, NY
  • Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art

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Pat Steir - Sixteen Waterfalls of Dreams, Memories, and Sentiment - The Metropolitan Museum of Art