Detail View: Art Collection:

UNIQUE ID: 
1.2011.623_2
Work Type: 
paintings (visual works)
Title: 
PH-308
Title Notes: 
preferred
Title: 
no title
Creation Date: 
1948
Work Creator Name: 
Still, Clyfford
Work Display Measurement: 
55 x 40 inches (139.7 x 101.6 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: 
San Francisco, California
Work Inscription: 
Clyfford 1948
Work Inscription Author: 
Still, Clyfford
Work Description: 
Three large vertically-oriented forms fit together like puzzle pieces and dominate this composition. The left form, painted primarily in black pigment with two dark blue linear forms at its center, sits at the bottom left edge and extends about a third of the way across the horizontal expanse of the canvas. Just above and to the right of this form, a thinner brown figure enters the scene from the top left and runs down the center of the canvas before ending in a hook-like shape at the work's bottom center. A small olive-colored shape sits within this brown form at the top left corner, and a jagged white figure with a yellow core hovers at its top center. Thirdly, a bulbous maroon form juts up against the brown form and runs from the work's top edge to bottom edge, dominating the right half of the canvas. Deep crimson strokes run throughout the maroon. Bare canvas fills the space to the right of these forms, though a flurry of black and orange marks create a haphazard array of pigment at the top right corner from which a long thin red lifeline extends down to the bottom edge of the canvas parallel to the maroon form, splitting the bare canvas along the right edge.
Citation: 
Clyfford Still, PH-308, 1948. Oil on canvas, 55 x 40 inches (139.7 x 101.6 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