Three Brushstrokes

In this sculpture, painting's basic building block, the brushstroke, has been playfully transformed into an oversized, three-dimensional form. Made from aluminum, three vertical "strokes" of pure color are frozen in space and rise to a height of more than ten feet. One edge of the yellow brushstroke cuts through the dominant stroke of black and blue; the yellow also curves into a diminutive stroke of red paint. Each brushstroke is a fully realized three-dimensional form that, somewhat implausibly, allows the viewer to experience a stroke of paint from different vantage points. The sculpture humorously reminds us that paint is literally three-dimensional. Roy Lichtenstein first explored brushstrokes as a subject in a series of paintings initiated in 1965.