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A work made of brush and black ink with gray wash on cream japanese paper, prepared with a pale orange persimmon sap wash.

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  • A work made of brush and black ink with gray wash on cream japanese paper, prepared with a pale orange persimmon sap wash.

Date:

1991

Artist:

Jim Lutes
American, born 1955

About this artwork

Lutes earned his MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1982. Integrating representation with the abstract, Lutes obscures his subjects through distortion. Such disfigurement, as seen in this drawing (exhibited in Documenta IX), recalls the grotesque depictions of flesh found in the work of Ivan Albright.
Lutes also played the drums since high school, and recorded and performed as a percussionist in the instrumental jazz-noise band Tiny Hairs. On the confluence of art and music, the artist has said, “Music is below the surface of my work. I ‘studied’ with Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, Lester Young, and Louis Armstrong. I formed myself as a painter when I figured out how to use them in my paintings.”

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Prints and Drawings

Artist

Jim Lutes

Title

But...

Place

United States (Artist's nationality)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

1991

Medium

Brush and black ink with gray wash on cream Japanese paper, prepared with a pale orange persimmon sap wash

Dimensions

31.1 × 45.3 cm (12 1/4 × 17 7/8 in.)

Credit Line

Adelaide C. Brown Endowment

Reference Number

1994.106

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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