Defining Paintings: Mixed Media Works from the Permanent Collection

March 1 – May 18, 2003

Perkins Gallery

When we think of a “painting”, we can easily imagine a stretched canvas with a coating of oil or acrylic paint, or a sheet of paper with watercolor paint. But how far can the definition of a painting be expanded? If an artwork has sculptural elements but is covered with paint, can it still be considered a painting? What about a hand-colored photograph? This exhibition is an exploration of the flexibility of paint within artworks. Featuring 22 works from the Polk Museum of Art Permanent Collection, this exhibition gives you the opportunity to rethink your assumptions about what it is that makes a painting, or other type of artwork, what it is.

Artists in the exhibition:

  • Rocky Bridges
  • Robert E. Calvo
  • Roy DeForest
  • Edouard Duval-Carrié
  • Andrew Ehrenworth
  • Robert Farber
  • Don Hazlitt
  • Roberto Juarez
  • Rebecca Sexton Larson
  • David Maxim
  • William Pachner
  • Tony Robbin
  • Rose Ann Samuelson
  • Miriam Schapiro
  • Mark Tobey
  • Rigoberto Torres
  • Ann Turnley
  • Theodore Waddell
  • Robert Rahway Zakanitch