Jerry Tsukio Okimoto
American, 1924-1998
Study for Composition #1, #2, #3 and #4 for "Mobile Painting #17", ca. 1963
Artwork Details
Materials
set of four watercolors on paper mounted on board
Measurements
each (sheet): 2 3/4 x 5 1/4 inches (6.99 x 13.33 cm); framed: 20 13/16 x 10 11/16 x 7/8 inches (52.86 x 27.15 x 2.22 cm)
Collection Buffalo AKG Art Museum
Credit
Gift of Seymour H. Knox, Jr., 1963
Accession ID
K1963:20a
These four studies demonstrate a range of possibilities, suggested by the artist Jerry Okimoto, to reconfigure the composition of Mobile Painting #17. While at first glance Mobile Painting #17 appears to be a completely flat, tricolored surface, the blue square in fact sits in a channel in front of the red and yellow squares and can be moved left or right. An exploration of geometric form and three-dimensionality, this works is also part Okimoto's overall mission as an artist to challenge the distinction between painting, sculpture, and other traditional modes of artmaking.
Label from Giant Steps: Artists and the 1960s, June 30–December 30, 2018