Detail View: Art Collection:

UNIQUE ID: 
1.2011.570_2
Work Type: 
paintings (visual works)
Title: 
PH-235
Title Notes: 
preferred
Title: 
no title
Title: 
1944-N-No. 1
Creation Date: 
1944
Work Creator Name: 
Still, Clyfford
Work Display Measurement: 
105 x 92 1/2 inches (266.7 x 235 cm)
Work Material Name: 
oil paint (paint)
Work Material Support Name: 
canvas
Work Technique Name: 
palette knives (painting equipment)
Work Style Period: 
Abstract Expressionist
Current Work Location Name: 
Clyfford Still Museum
Creation Location: 
Richmond, Virginia
Work Relation: 
Derived from PH-555, 1943 (oil on paper, unknown collection)
Work Relation: 
First version of PH-671, 1944 (MoMA, New York)
Work Relation: 
Rosamond McCanless letter of 1/14/74 to Charles Kessler
Work Description: 
One of Still's final "breakthroughs" into pure abstraction, this monumental canvas is covered from edge to edge with a thick, volcanic black pigment. A single blood-red lifeline slices through the black field starting a little more than halfway up the right edge and running up towards the top center before falling down along the right edge and off the bottom right edge of the canvas. An electric bolt of yellow shoots into view from the top edge, just right of center, cutting through the red lifeline and withering away to a sharp point just below. Just to the left of the yellow bolt, a smaller, bright white bolt appears over the red lifeline and falls vertically down parallel to the yellow bolt. A shot of bluish-green is seen at the bottom right corner, just to the right of the red lifeline and fades into the black field near the bottom edge.
Citation: 
Clyfford Still, PH-235, 1944. Oil on canvas, 105 x 92 1/2 inches (266.7 x 235 cm). Clyfford Still Museum, Denver, CO.
Work Rights Statement: 
© City and County of Denver / ARS, NY
Image Holding Institution: 
Clyfford Still Museum
Image Collection Name: 
CSM Art Collection: Objects
Image Rights Statement: 
Photo: Gary Regester, courtesy the Clyfford Still Museum