JOE ZUCKER | JOE'S #1

Private Collection, Washington

Thence by descent to the present owner 

“[In] the ‘Joe’s Painting’; series, 1963–66, Zucker covered variously sized cotton canvases in interwoven bands of color that represent the warp and weft of the support itself. This relationship between motif and materiality remains essential throughout his output, as does an embrace of the grid as primary structure. In ways similar to the historically gridded city, conceptual order is tempered with material excess: Canvas painted in a sunny yellow and green weave on a tented stretcher may reference its own making, but it also recalls the plastic folding lawn chairs that dotted Zucker’s native South Side [of Chicago] in the ’60s.”

(Julia Langbein, “Joe Zucker”, Artforum, September 2011, online)