Creation Series, 1972-1974

Creation Series, 1972–1974

Isham’s activated surfaces, whorls of color sprayed in various densities, underpin a statement she made with regard to her drive to express a total surface environment: “I cherish the surface of my work; that it should have a strong tactile stimulation is therefore part of the impression, but naturally the surface is held in restraint and is subordinated to the total image.” Her continued study of ancient Chinese practices, both of philosophically based meditation and poetic texts, can be understood not only from her titles, derived from the ideograms I Ching, but also from her striving toward dematerialization of form in these works and the overtaking of chromatic atmosphere. Spraying over found objects, one perceives a hint of form as striations of white embedded in waves of color, a kind of incorporeality made manifest in explosions of color.

Featured

Chi Chi II / Chi Chi — After Completion — Water With Fou, 1973. Acrylic on canvas, 80 x 82 in. Estate of Sheila Isham, New York

Ching III, 1974. Acrylic on canvas, 87 x 60 in. Estate of Sheila Isham, New York. Image courtesy of Hollis Taggart Gallery, New York.

Untitled, circa 1972–73. Acrylic on canvas, 53 7/8 x 42 in. (136.8 x 106.7 cm). Estate of Sheila Isham, New York. Image courtesy of Hollis Taggart Gallery, New York.

Huan – Dispersion – Wind with Water, 1973. Acrylic on canvas, 93 x 143 in. (236.2 x 363.2 cm). Permanent Collection of the Fralin Museum of Art, University of Virginia, Charlottesville

Chung Fu II – Wind with Lake, 1972. Acrylic on canvas, 66 1/4 in. (168.3 cm) (diameter). Estate of Sheila Isham, New York. Image courtesy of Hollis Taggart Gallery, New York.

Kuan II — Wind With Earth, 1972. Acrylic on canvas, 77 x 114 in. Estate of Sheila Isham, New York

Teth #8, 1972. Acrylic on canvas, 82 1/4 x 108 1/4 in. (208.9 x 275 cm). Estate of Sheila Isham, New York. Image courtesy of Hollis Taggart Gallery, New York.

Ch’ien — Earth with Mountain, 1973. Acrylic on canvas, 55 3/4 x 35 1/4 in. (141.6 x 89 cm). Private Collection. Image courtesy of Hollis Taggart Gallery, New York.

#10 Aleph / Phoenix Rising, 1972. Acrylic on canvas, 84 1/4 x 100 1/4 in. (214 x 254.6 cm). Estate of Sheila Isham, New York. Image courtesy of Hollis Taggart Gallery, New York.

Shain, circa 1972. Acrylic on canvas, 80 x 104 in. Estate of Sheila Isham, New York

Untitled, 1973. Acrylic on paper, 22 1/4 x 29 7/8 in. (56.5 x 75.9 cm). Estate of Sheila Isham, New York

Chi Chi III, 1973. Acrylic on canvas, 40 x 80 in. Estate of Sheila Isham, New York

Fu — Earth With Thunder, circa 1972–73. Acrylic on canvas, 53 x 88 in. Estate of Sheila Isham, New York

Creation Series, 1972-1974

Creation Series, 1972–1974

Return to Merging Eastern Philosophy and Techniques and Western Modernist Practice, 1964-1974