Wrigley's

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.

Wrigley's

Charles Green Shaw

1937

Accession Number

53042

Medium

Oil on canvas

Dimensions

76.2 × 114.3 cm (30 × 45 in.)

Classification

painting

Museum

The Art Institute of Chicago

Chicago, United States

Credit Line

Purchased with funds provided by the Alsdorf Foundation