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Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow

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Photography by Edward C. Robison III.
Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow
Photography by Edward C. Robison III.

Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow

Artist (Navajo, 1946 - 2004)
Date1975
MediumAcrylic on canvas
DimensionsFramed: 25 3/8 in. × 37 3/4 in. × 2 in.
ClassificationsPainting
Credit LineCrystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, 2020.69
Signedc.l.: Morez '75
Accession number 2020.69
On View
Not on view
ProvenanceDr. Gerhard [1931-2018] and Dr. Gisela Hoffmann, Wurzburg, Germany; (Zemanek-Münster, Wurzburg, Germany), November 20, 2018, lot 508; Bruce Hartman, Prairie Village, KS; purchased by Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR, 2020
Label TextAt the center of this painting, the profile of a person’s face emerges from the abstraction. Mary Morez adorns the surrounding geometric shapes with patterns drawn from her Navajo heritage, intentionally blending both Native and non-Native abstract traditions with moments of recognizable figuration.

In blending this imagery, Morez also complicates an easy read of where one object starts and others finish. This confusion of time and space helps illustrate how “yesterday, today, and tomorrow” could all exist within a single picture plane.

En el centro de la composición, el perfil del rostro de una figura humana emerge de la abstracción. Mary Morez decora las figuras geométricas circundantes con diseños extraídos de su herencia navaja y combina las tradiciones abstractas nativa y no nativa con fragmentos de figuración reconocible.

En esta mezcla, Morez además complejiza una lectura de la obra que determinaría sencillamente dónde empieza y dónde acaba cada objeto. Esta confusión de tiempo y espacio contribuye en la ilustración del modo en que “ayer, hoy y mañana” podrían existir simultáneamente en el plano único de la obra.

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