id:			318300
accession number:	2019.58
share license status:	Copyrighted
url:			https://clevelandart.org/art/2019.58
updated:		2022-05-12 09:00:33.744000

Blue Rational/Irrational, 1969. Al Loving (American, 1935-2005). Acrylic on canvas; 147 x 322.5 cm (57 7/8 x 126 15/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of the KeyBank Collection 2019.58 © The Estate of Al Loving and Garth Greenan Gallery, New York

title:				Blue Rational/Irrational
title in original language:	
series:				
series in original language:	
creation date:			1969
creation date earliest:		1964
creation date latest:		1974
current location:		224A Contemporary Corridor
creditline:			Gift of the KeyBank Collection
copyright:			© The Estate of Al Loving and Garth Greenan Gallery, New York

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culture:	America
technique:	Acrylic on canvas
department:	Contemporary Art
collection:	CONTEMP - Painting
type:		Painting
find spot:	
catalogue raisonne: 

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CREATORS

* Al Loving (American, 1935-2005)  - artist

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measurements: 147 x 322.5 cm (57 7/8 x 126 15/16 in.)
state of the work:	
edition of the work: 	

support materials:


inscriptions:

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CURRENT EXHIBITIONS

	title:		Contemporary Gallery Reinstallation 2021
	opening date:   2021-04-20T04:00:00
	<i>Contemporary Gallery Reinstallation 2021</i>. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer).

	title:		Currents and Constellations: Black Art in Focus
	opening date:   2022-02-20T05:00:00
	<i>Currents and Constellations: Black Art in Focus</i>. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 20-June 26, 2022).

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LEGACY EXHIBITIONS

* <em>Alvin Loving: Paintings</em>. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY (December 19, 1969–January 25, 1970).

* <em>Frieze Masters. </em>Garth Greenan Gallery, New York, NY (October 5 - October 9, 2016)

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PROVENANCE

	Collection of the artist
	date: 1969-?
	footnotes: 	
	citations: 	


	(KeyBank Collection, Cleveland, OH, given to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH)
	date: early 1990s-2019
	footnotes: 	
	citations: 	


	The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
	date: 2019-
	footnotes: 	
	citations: 	


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fun fact: 
This work debuted in <em>Al Loving: Paintings </em>(1969) at the Whitney Museum, the museum’s first solo exhibition by an African American artist.

digital description: 
Across both canvases of this large-scale diptych, Loving evokes a three-dimensional space on a two-dimensional surface through strategic layerings of cubic forms and carefully calibrated color juxtapositions. Around the time Loving made this work he wrote, “I am tired of objects on walls. The wall must be pierced, brought forward, pushed back.” <em>Blue Rational/Irrational</em> is a bold manifestation of this sentiment.

wall description: 

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RELATED WORKS

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CITATIONS

	Cochrane, Mary, ed. <em>The Appropriate Object.</em> Buffalo, NY: Albright-Knox Art Gallery, 1989.
	page number: 	Mentioned: pp. 41- 49
	url:		

	Patel, Samir S, ed. <em>Energy/Experimentation: Black Artists and Abstraction 1964-1980. </em>New York: Studio Museum in Harlem, 2006.
	page number: 	54-55
	url:		

	Cooke, Lynne, Douglas Crimp, et al. <em>Outliers and American Vanguard Art</em>. Washington: National Gallery of Art, 2018.
	page number: 	96-97
	url:		

	Yoder, Dean. “Hidden Complexities: The Conservation of Al Loving's <em>Blue Rational/Irrational</em>.” <em>Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine </em>61, no. 2 (Spring 2021): 36-37.
	page number: 	Reproduced: P. 36, 37: Mentioned: P. 4, 36-37.
	url:		

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IMAGES