Interventionist Demonstration (Why-A-Duck?)

Description

“I push things to the point where I have no idea what’s going to happen,” painter Charline von Heyl has said. “I am interested in trying out something that might seem paradoxical and impossible . . . forcing them to work with grace and ease.” At 17 feet long, the elaborately titled Interventionist Demonstration (Why-a-Duck?) is her largest work to date. Part text and part painting, the canvas layers scrawled language and patterns over a field of loose, abstract gestures—like banners or bumper stickers tumbling and jostling across an atmospheric surface. The work generates a palpable energy, while harboring half-buried references to histories of the cartoon, graffiti, decorative painting, and expressive abstraction.

Interventionist Demonstration (Why-A-Duck?)

Charline von Heyl

2013

Accession Number

224326

Medium

Acrylic and spray paint on linen

Dimensions

211.1 × 494 cm (83 1/8 × 194 1/2 in.)

Classification

acrylic paintings (visual works)

Museum

The Art Institute of Chicago

Chicago, United States

Credit Line

Gift of Helen and Sam Zell