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Washington University in St. Louis
Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts

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Rodney McMillian

Untitled (clouds)

2019

On View in James M. Kemper Gallery, Room 3

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Rodney McMillian created this provocative landscape painting by applying latex paint to a crocheted blanket that he bought from a thrift store. Tendrils of poured paint streak across the upper half of the horizontally striped fabric, complementing as well as disrupting the geometric pattern of the handcrafted afghan. Pooling and seeping into the textured support, the fluid paint approximates the clouds referred to in the work’s subtitle while also suggesting evidence of violence. Blankets such as the one used here are often made as gifts to share with family and friends and are typically equated with warmth, comfort, and security. Through his painterly alterations of this found blanket, McMillian critically engages both the domestic realm and the legacy of nineteenth-century American landscape painting, which was often employed to celebrate white settler colonialism founded on the exploitation of land and bodies. The work is part of the artist’s ongoing exploration of the concept of “home” as a site of psychological comfort and a place where beliefs and biases, including about class, race, and identity, are shaped and indoctrinated. [Permanent Collection Label, 2021]

  • Artist Rodney McMillian (American, b. 1969)
  • Title Untitled (clouds)
  • Date 2019
  • Medium Latex on blanket
  • Dimensions unframed | 61 x 98 in.
  • Credit line University purchase, Bixby Fund, 2020
  • Object number WU 2020.0004
  • Currently on View James M. Kemper Gallery, Room 3

Let Us Feel Heartbreak: Contemporary Art and the Environment
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, Washington University in St. Louis, 08/17/2024

Recirculating Goods
Petzel, 02/27/2020 - 07/31/2020

Received 8/24/2020; presented to ACC 10/15/2020; invoice submitted 10/20/2020
Friedrich Petzel Gallery, New York

This artwork record may be incomplete or need refinement. Our staff actively researches the collection and revises records when new information is available. If you have questions or comments about this record, please contact us.

Related Content

go to House and Home page
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House and Home

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go to Guided Close Looking: Rodney McMillian, “Untitled (Clouds)” page
Screen Shot 2023-08-28 at 1.37.30 PM
Videos

Guided Close Looking: Rodney McMillian, “Untitled (Clouds)”

Grade: High, Middle, University
go to Recirculating Goods page
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Exhibitions

Recirculating Goods

February 27, 2020–July 31, 2020
go to Let Us Feel Heartbreak: Contemporary Art and the Environment page
2023_0002.jpg
Exhibitions

Let Us Feel Heartbreak: Contemporary Art and the Environment

August 17, 2024

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