Mary Heilmann

Pat Hearn Gallery, New York

Acquired from the above by the present owner

A strikingly colorful painting structured by bold fields of chartreuse and experimental geometric motifs, Black Velvet and Chartreuse, created in 1992, is emblematic of Mary Heilmann’s idiosyncratic palette, which she adopted in the 1990s and continues to expand to this day. Composed of loosely rendered, interwoven black lines and a pair of black squares running up the corners of the fluorescent canvas, this particular work conveys Heilmann’s attraction to the ethos of Minimalism, Pop, and punk, as well as her deep interest in the modernist grid – influences that have permeated Heilmann’s stunningly original oeuvre since the 1970s, when she devoted herself to painting. A standout example of her signature style and sensibility, Black Velvet and Chartreuse suggests a powerful sense of Heilmann’s vibrant personal narrative, irreverence, and informality. As she puts it herself, “Each of my paintings can be seen as an autobiographical marker, a cue, by which I evoke a moment from my past, or my projected future, each a charm to conjure up a mental reality and to give it physical form.” (Mary Heilmann, In Mary Heilmann: The All Night Movie, Galerie Hauser & Wirth, 1999, p. 7)