Study for "Icarus", No. 4
1964
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
brush and black ink with gouache and pastel on spiral-bound wove paper
Dimensions
image: 33.02 × 25.4 cm (13 × 10 in.) sheet: 43.34 × 35.56 cm (17 1/16 × 14 in.)
Classification
Drawing
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Corcoran Collection (Gift of Mr. and Mrs. William H. Lane)
Accession Number
2015.19.2535
Art Historical Context
Jimmy Ernst's *Study for "Icarus", No. 4* (1964) is a dynamic preparatory drawing that captures the artist's exploratory process for a larger painting inspired by the ancient Greek myth of Icarus the ill-fated youth who flew too close to sun. Created during the height of postwar American abstraction, this work reflects Ernst's roots in the New York School, influenced by his father, Surrealist master Max Ernst, while embracing gestural freedom and emotional depth characteristic of Abstract Expressionism. Executed in brush and black ink with gouache and pastel on spiral-bound wove paper (image:...