Moon Lake
2003
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
color water bite aquatint with spit bite aquatint and drypoint on Somerset paper (WP 2 – blue water bite and spit bite red and graphite pencil drawing)
Dimensions
18 x 34 in.
Classification
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of Kathan Brown
Accession Number
2024.132.674
Art Historical Context
Pat Steir's *Moon Lake* (2003) captures the ethereal beauty of a nocturnal landscape through innovative printmaking. This color aquatint on Somerset paper, measuring 18 x 34 inches, evokes the shimmering reflections of moonlight on water, aligning with Steir's lifelong fascination with nature's fluidity. Born in 1940, the American artist is renowned for her abstract works that blend Eastern philosophies of chance with Western abstraction, as seen in her iconic "Waterfall" paintings from the 1990s onward. Here, the print's title suggests a serene, moonlit lake, rendered in layers of blue and re...
About the Artist
Pat Steir
Pat Steir, born Iris Patricia Sukoneck on April 10, 1938, in Newark, New Jersey, to a Russian-Jewish immigrant family, knew from age five that she wanted to be an artist or poet. The eldest daughter of a father who worked in art-adjacent trades like silk-screening and neon sign design, she frequented the Philadelphia Museum of Art as a child. Steir studied at Pratt Institute from 1956 to 1958, the...