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, Roadhouse, 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 two squares of saturated red paint against a brushy, fluorescent background, Roadhouse conveys Heilmann’s attraction to the ethos of Minimalism, Pop, and punk, as well as her interest in primary colors and the modernist grid – influences that have permeated her stunningly original oeuvre since the 1970s, when she devoted herself to painting. A standout example of Heilmann’s signature style and use of evocative titles, Roadhouse suggests a powerful sense of her vibrant personal narrative, irreverence, and informality. As Heilmann 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)