Photo: Spike Mafford / Zocalo Studios. Courtesy of the Friday Foundation

PH-338 (1949-No.2)

1949

American, 1904-1980

At a time when many artists in New York were still experimenting with abstraction, Still arrived at his mature style while teaching in San Francisco in the late 1940s. Advanced and uncompromising, he became an influential voice amid New York’s painters during extended visits in the 1940s to the city, where he moved for the subsequent decade. Still described his paintings, textured and raw, in terms of oppositional struggles, of which PH-338 is an iconic example. He also developed a practice of creating variations of works that were especially important to him: “…the few replicas I make are usually close to or extensions to the original; each has its special and particular life and is not intended to be just a copy.” Still made PH-338 in response to a painting of the same size and composition (Clyfford Still Museum, Denver), but his addition of yellow and orange highlights conveys a substantially altered mood.

Oil on canvas

91 1/2 x 68 3/4 in. (232.5 x 174.5 cm)

Gift of the Friday Foundation in honor of Richard E. Lang and Jane Lang Davis

2020.14.17

Provenance: The artist; [Betty Parsons Gallery, New York]; Mr. and Mrs. Milton Fischmann, Saint Louis, Missouri; Mr. and Mrs. Ben Heller, New York; [Dayton’s Gallery 12, Minneapolis, Minnesota]; purchased from gallery by Jane and Richard E. Lang, Seattle, Washington, 1973; Friday Foundation, Seattle, Washington, 2018; to Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, 2020

Photo: Spike Mafford / Zocalo Studios. Courtesy of the Friday Foundation

Now on view at the Seattle Art Museum

Resources

Exhibition HistoryNew York, New York, Betty Parsons Gallery, Clyfford Still, Apr. 17 - May 6, 1950.

San Francisco, California, Metart Galleries, Paintings by Clyfford Still, June 17 - July 14, 1950.

The New American Painting, As Shown in Eight European Countries, 1958–1959, organized by the International Program of the Museum of Modern Art, under the auspices of the International Council at the Museum of Modern Art (Basel, Switzerland, Kunsthalle, Apr. 19 - May 26, 1958; Milan, Italy, Galleria Civica d'Arte Moderna, June 1 - 29, 1958; Madrid, Spain, Museo Nacional de Arte Contemporáneo, July 16 - Aug. 10, 1958; Berlin, Germany, Hochschule für Bildende Künste, Sept. 1 - Oct. 1, 1958; Amsterdam, the Netherlands, Stedelijk Museum, Oct. 17 - Nov. 24, 1958; Brussels, Belgium, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Dec. 6, 1958 - Jan. 4, 1959; Paris, France, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Jan. 16 - Feb. 15, 1959; London, England, Tate Gallery, Feb. 24 - Mar. 23, 1959). Cat. no. 68 (as Number 2), reproduced p. 77.

The Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Ben Heller, organized by the Museum of Modern Art, New York (Art Institute of Chicago [as The Ben Heller Collection of Paintings of the School of New York], Sept. 22 - Oct. 22, 1961; Baltimore, Maryland, Baltimore Museum of Art, Dec. 3 - 31, 1961; Cincinnati, Ohio, Contemporary Arts Center, Jan. 22 - Feb. 25, 1962; Cleveland, Ohio, Cleveland Museum of Art, Mar. 13 - Apr. 10, 1962; San Francisco, California Palace of the Legion of Honor, Apr. 30 - June 3, 1962; Portland, Oregon, Portland Art Museum, June 15 - July 22, 1962; Los Angeles, California, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Sept. 5 - Oct. 14, 1962). No cat. no., reproduced (as Painting Number 2).

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, The Richard and Jane Lang Collection, Feb. 2 - Apr. 1, 1984. Cat. no. 43, pp. 58-59, reproduced.

Washington, D.C., Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Clyfford Still: Paintings, 1944–1960, June 21 - Sept. 16, 2001. Cat. no. 19, reproduced.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, SAM at 75: Building a Collection for Seattle, May 5 - Sept. 9, 2007.

Denver, Colorado, Clyfford Still Museum, Repeat/Recreate:Clyfford Still's 'Replicas', Sept. 18, 2015 - Jan. 10, 2016. No cat. no., reproduced p. 81, pl. 21

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Big Picture: Art after 1945, July 23, 2016 - May 16, 2021 [on view Nov. 20, 2018 - May 16, 2021].

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Frisson: The Richard E. Lang and Jane Lang Davis Collection, Oct. 15, 2021 - Nov. 27, 2022. Text by David Anfam. No cat. no., pp. 15, 41, 66-73, 193, reproduced pp. 14 (fig. 4), 30 (detail), 67 (pl. 3), 183.

Published ReferencesHess, Thomas B. "U.S. Painting, Some Recent Directions," Art News, Annual Christmas Edition, 1955: p. 76.

Brion, Marcel, Sam Hunter, et al. "Art Since 1945." New York: Abrams, 1958: p. 315, reproduced pl. 152.

Sawyer, Kenneth B. “U.S. Painters Today: Clyfford Still.” Portfolio and ARTnews Annual, no. 2 (1960). Reproduced p. 83 (as Number 2).

Hunter, Sam. American Art of the 20th Century. New York: Abrams, 1972: p. 204, reproduced pl. 374.

Arnason, H.H. History of Modern Art: Painting, Sculpture, Architecture, Photography, second edition. New York: Abrams and Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1977. Reproduced pl. 214, pp. 515, 532.

O'Neill, John P., ed. Clyfford Still. New York: Abrams, 1979: p. 78.

Arneson, H.H. History of Modern Art: Painting, Sculpture, Architecture, Photography, third edition, revised and updated by Daniel Wheeler. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc, 1986. Reproduced p. 404.

A Community of Collectors: 75th Anniversary Gifts to the Seattle Art Museum, Seattle: Seattle Art Museum and University of Washington Press, 2008. Reproduced p. 34.

Cohen-Solal, Annie, et al. New York Mid-Century 1945-1965: Art, Architecture, Design, Dance, Theater, Nightlife. New York: The Vendome Press, 2014. Reproduced p. 47.

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