Bowdoin College Museum of Art |

Preview image of work. graphite on paper, Little Moray Hill 22686

2011.12

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Little Moray Hill

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Artist

Michelle Stuart (Los Angeles, California, 1933 - )

Title

Little Moray Hill

Creation Date

1973

Century

mid-20th century

Dimensions

8 in. x 10 in. (20.32 cm x 25.4 cm)

Object Type

drawing

Creation Place

North America, United States

Medium and Support

graphite on paper

Credit Line

Museum Purchase, Greenacres Acquisition Fund

Copyright

This artwork may be under copyright. For further information, please consult the Museum’s Copyright Terms and Conditions.

Accession Number

2011.12

Stuart’s drawing records the physical texture of topography by dragging graphite repeatedly over the surface of a piece of paper. The resulting rubbing not only harkens back to the frottage technique pioneered by the Surrealists in the 1920s, but its grainy black and white texture also reflects Stuart’s interest in the photographic imagery widely circulated by NASA during the period of the first moon landing. Stuart, like numerous artists of her generation, was prompted to explore not just the lunar, but also the terrestrial landscape through new means. Indeed, the ground documented in this work, Moray Hill, in the vicinity of Kingston and Woodstock, New York, has personal significance for the artist, who lived there at the time. For Stuart, “People are determined by place. . . . They’re very determined by place.”