Following the Hirshhorn’s tradition of inviting artists to respond to its cylindrical architecture Pat Steir drew inspiration from the Museum’s distinctive shape, which for her conjured one of the painter’s most essential tools: the color wheel. Steir has created thirty large-scale paintings that will transform the entire perimeter of the second-floor inner galleries into a vibrant spectrum of color, forming two overlapping but opposing color wheels that encompass visitors, inviting them to walk around the space to explore the cascading nuances of color. Typical of Steir’s decades-long abstract painting practice, these luminescent paintings commingle meticulously placed brushwork with the variable of chance, as Steir brushes and pours multiple layers of paint onto the canvas, allowing the pigments to cascade freely downward.
On the eve of the public opening of Pat Steir: Color Wheel, Steir joined Hirshhorn senior curator Evelyn Hankins for a discussion on her long career and the making of her monumental installation.
Recorded Oct. 23, 2019