Description
In Wrigley’s, Charles Green Shaw depicted a package of spearmint gum against a series of rectangular forms that suggests the Lower Manhattan skyline; the levitating, rotating rectangle of the gum echoes the blocky, static shapes of the vertical skyscrapers. Shaw, an early advocate of nonobjective art in the United States, painted Wrigley’s as a speculative advertising pitch pairing abstraction with commercial art. Although an advertising poster was never produced, the witty juxtapositions of Shaw’s design align Wrigley’s gum with the breathtaking modernity of skyscrapers and the excitement of urban life.
Provenance
The artist; bequeathed to Charles H. Carpenter, New Canaan, CT, 1974; [Washburn Gallery, c. 1974–1978], sold to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1978.
Accession Number
53042
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
76.2 × 114.3 cm (30 × 45 in.)
Classification
painting
Credit Line
Purchased with funds provided by the Alsdorf Foundation