Bowdoin College Museum of Art

Preview image of work. oil on canvas, Muted Clues 12949

2002.16

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Muted Clues

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Artist

Gyorgy Kepes (Selyp, Hungary, 1906 - 12/29/2001, Massachusetts)

Title

Muted Clues

Creation Date

1966

Century

20th century

Dimensions

16 1/8 in. x 7/8 in. (40.96 cm x 2.26 cm)

Object Type

painting

Creation Place

North America, United States

Medium and Support

oil on canvas

Credit Line

Gift of Ruth C. Hoffman

Copyright

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

Accession Number

2002.16

Fascinated by the revelations of twentieth-century science and technology, Kepes argued that artists “need a reunion with…nature, albeit a nature different from that which our fathers knew.” His commitment to the use of unconventional strategies to evoke fundamental structures present in the natural world is evident in the incorporation of sand to accentuate the texture of the work, literally introducing rather than referencing the natural world. Leaving it open to his viewers’ imagination whether this may be a distant universe or a molecular structure, Kepes invites his audience to meditate upon the “muted clues” that may be discerned. His artistic practice was greatly informed by his research in developing civilian aerial camouflage for the U.S. Army in 1942.