Is that all there is?
Is that all there is? references the tragic death of a child known to the artist. Its title is borrowed from a Peggy Lee song from 1969 in which the chorus enjoins the listener to accept life’s lack of transcendent meaning and drown their sorrows in the ephemeral comforts of dance and drink. Mohamedi’s distinctive approach to abstraction centers around what she has called the "meaningful mark," referring to a sphere of significance personal to the artist, which simultaneously leaves space for the viewer’s involvement. Drawing on a web of art historical and pop culture references, as well as the Southern California landscape she calls home, her paintings juxtapose flat, organic forms with sharp, script-like lines. Here, the idiosyncratic palette of bubblegum pink, buttery yellow, brick red, gray, and black reflects a sense of the deflation or extinguished promise expressed in the painting’s title.
Artwork Details
- Title: Is that all there is?
- Artist: Maysha Mohamedi (American, born Los Angeles 1980)
- Date: 2021
- Medium: Oil and graphite on canvas
- Dimensions: 88 1/4 × 77 in. (224.2 × 195.6 cm)
- Classification: Paintings
- Credit Line: Gift of Suzi and Franklin Parrasch and Parrasch Heijnen Gallery, in memory of Madeline Naomi Parrasch and Theodore Fredrick Emerson, 2022
- Object Number: 2022.372
- Rights and Reproduction: © Maysha Mohamedi
- Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art
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