Standing Room Only
Artist
Katie Crown
Date2016
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions48 x 60 in. (121.9 x 152.4 cm)
ClassificationsPainting
Credit LineGift of The Hilbert Collection
Object number2023.089
DescriptionArtist's Statement:"I’ve had fun for years playing with depictions of audiences, first in sculptures, then in paintings. Viewers of these pieces all have experienced being part of audiences, so they can identify. And here, they also have the audience looking back at them. The idea for an audience series came to me at an archaeology museum in Greece, where the faces on rows of small ceramic busts in a display case seemed to be watching the museum visitors. As a theme, audiences are a gold mine for an artist. The audience paintings draw upon my appreciation for cartooning – presenting people in a humorous light. I can play with moods. I’m not going for tasteful. Think James Ensor and Edvard Munch at the ballet. Plus, I love rhythmic pattern, and I get to riff on that both with the individuals in the audience and with the structure of the whole group. The overall design is influenced by some patterned oriental tilework that visually dissolves the mass of the structure that’s ornamented by the tiles.
This painting was completed in 2016 and first exhibited at The Artists Gallery (TAG) in Santa Monica that year."
On View
Not on view
