Soft Borders

1997
(American, 1949-)
Framed: 269.1 x 217.2 x 5.8 cm (105 15/16 x 85 1/2 x 2 5/16 in.); Unframed: 265.7 x 214 cm (104 5/8 x 84 1/4 in.)
© Mark Tansey
This artwork is known to be under copyright.
Location: not on view

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Description

With wit and irony, this painting reveals Mark Tansey’s fascination with the nature of time, space, and painting itself. Against a mountain backdrop he painted four interrelated scenes: a small tribe of native Americans, an expedition of 19th-century surveyors and photographers, a group of tourists taking photographs and home movies, and a toxic waste-removal crew in protective clothing. Each scene is depicted from a different perspective. Shown here in the orientation preferred by the artist, the canvas can be hung in any of four positions. Tansey describes Soft Borders as a “short history of the West from four different points of view.” The artist makes many preliminary drawings and collages before producing a final composition. Once the planning is finished, the time actually spent painting is brief—several days to several months. Tansey’s palette is restricted to one color applied over a gessoed (plastered) canvas, manipulating the paint with brushes and scraping tools, removing pigment until the white of the ground is visible, much like daylight shining through fog.
Soft Borders

Soft Borders

1997

Mark Tansey

(American, 1949-)
America, 20th century

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