Untitled (Can Study)
1994
Image not available — this artwork is under copyright
View on museum website →Medium
gouache and graphite on Rives BFK wove paper
Dimensions
sheet: 121.29 x 80.49 cm (47 3/4 x 31 11/16 in.)
Classification
Drawing
Department
CG-W
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of the Collectors Committee and Luhring Augustine Gallery
Accession Number
2010.51.1
Art Historical Context
Al Taylor's *Untitled (Can Study)*1994) is a captivating drawing that exemplifies the artist's fascination with everyday objects and perceptual play. Created in gouache and graphite on Rives BFK wove paper—a premium, sheet favored for its smooth texture and absorbency, ideal for precise layering and detail—this work measures an impressive 121.29 x 80.49 cm. Taylor, an American artist active in New York during the 1980s and '90s, transformed mundane subjects like cans into intricate visual investigations, blending humor, illusion, and geometric abstraction in a style akin to conceptual drawing....
About the Artist
Al Taylor
Al Taylor (1948–1999) was born in Springfield, Missouri, and received his B.F.A. from the Kansas City Art Institute in 1970, where he trained as a painter. That year, he relocated to New York City, embracing the vibrant art scene and taking a job as an assistant to Robert Rauschenberg, whose medium-blending experiments shaped Taylor's lifelong curiosity about the interplay between two and three di...