THE COLLECTION
Empirical Construction, Istanbul
Julie Mehretu (American, born Ethiopia 1970)
2003. Ink and synthetic polymer paint on canvas, 10' x 15' (304.8 x 457.2 cm). Fund for the Twenty-First Century. © 2010 Julie Mehretu
323.2004
Multiplex: Directions in Art, 1970 to Now
November 21, 2007–July 28, 2008
For Mehretu, abstraction "allows for thinking of an issue from different perspectives, from many points of view." "I work with source material that I am interested in conceptually, politically, or even just visually," she has explained. "I pull from all of this material, project it, trace it, break it up, recontextualize it, layer one on the other, and envelop it into the DNA of the painting. It then becomes the context, the history, the point of departure. It becomes the place of the painting."
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