Venous Plexus #3
Date1983
Artist
Charles Clough
(American painter, draftsman, and photographer, born 1951)
MediumEnamel collage on Masonite™
Dimensions13 7/8 × 13 1/2 in. (35.2 × 34.3 cm)
Credit LineTHE DOROTHY AND HERBERT VOGEL COLLECTION: FIFTY WORKS FOR FIFTY STATES, a joint initiative of the Trustees of the Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection and the National Gallery of Art, with generous support of the National Endowment for the Arts and the Institute of Museum and Library Services, 2008
Object number2008-28
On View
Not on viewClassificationsPAINTING
Label TextCharles Clough's work explores the abundance of visual imagery available in contemporary society. Unlike direct reproduction used by some artists working in the late 1970s and early 1980s, Clough appropriates the identifiable image and alters it almost beyond recognition. Working at Barnes & Noble as a young artist, Clough began to cut up pictures of masterpieces from art history books. He would then finger paint on top of the reproductions, photograph them, and paint on top of these photographs. Despite his many interventions, glimpses of the Édouard Manet painting (Music in the Tuileries Gardens, 1862, The National Gallery, London) remain visible—the opening between the trees at the top of the canvas and the girls playing at the bottom.
