The Perpetual Painting

Moira Dryer routinely produced works that are often referred to as "prop paintings": works that were as focused on the artist’s exploration of color and careful application of paint as they were on the addition of found objects, establishing painting as a decidedly three-dimensional proposition. The Perpetual Painting features Dryer’s signature use of a wavy line with attached parts—a pulley and belt—that imply a working machine, one that is, in fact, not functional. Trained as a set designer for the theater, Dryer was persistently committed to confounding our expectations for painting, notably during a period when painting was increasingly considered retrograde in contrast to more conceptual practices of the period.