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Three Pansies

Joe Brainard American
1967
Not on view
A prolific artist and sometimes writer, Brainard was associated with the New York School, a community of poets and artists who congregated and often collaborated in downtown Manhattan in the mid-twentieth century. In the 1960s, unable to afford paint and canvas, he instead transformed ordinary objects and ephemera collected from his Lower East Side neighborhood into assemblages and collages. Throughout the next decade, he employed this modest yet sensual approach to materials to produce hundreds of lush multimedia works on paper, including intricate paper cutouts and minuscule shaped drawings. In their depiction of everyday things—garden flowers, the torso of a friend or lover, a can of sardines, a crumpled pair of underpants— these works capture with poignancy and wit the observed snippets that compose life.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Three Pansies
  • Artist: Joe Brainard (American, Salem, Arkansas 1942–1994 New York)
  • Date: 1967
  • Medium: Gouache on paper
  • Dimensions: 7 5/16 × 5 13/16 in. (18.5 × 14.7 cm)
  • Classification: Drawings
  • Credit Line: Gift of Stanley Posthorn, in memory of the artist, 1997
  • Object Number: 1997.404.5
  • Rights and Reproduction: © Estate of Joe Brainard
  • Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art

More Artwork

More Artwork
Untitled (True Love), Joe Brainard American, Graphite and porous-point pens on paper
Untitled (True Love)
Joe Brainard
1971
Gray and Brass, John Sloan American, Oil on canvas, American
Gray and Brass
John Sloan
1907
Street Scene in Paris (Scène de rue à Paris), Félix Vallotton Swiss, Gouache and oil on cardboard.
Street Scene in Paris (Scène de rue à Paris)
Félix Vallotton
1897
Tumbler of Flowers, Joe Brainard American, Cut and torn pasted papers, printed papers and gouache on paper
Tumbler of Flowers
Joe Brainard
1976
Necklace, Meta Overbeck American, Gold, emeralds, Montana sapphires, topazes, enamel, American
Necklace
Meta Overbeck
Louis C. Tiffany
Manufacturer Tiffany & Co.
ca. 1914–15

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