Winged Form
Winged Form
Artist
Creation date
1939
Materials
tempera and oil on paper, mounted on canvas
Dimensions
26 x 34 7/8 in.
27 5/8 x 36 3/4 in. (framed)
Credit line
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Clarence W. long
Accession number
71.221
Collection
Not Currently On View
The subject's origins in nature are suggested through color and texture and the repetition and layering of forms, which create a rhythm reminiscent of fluttering wings.
Indiana-born Stevens was originally a landscape painter who eventually produced works that expressed nature in an abstract manner.
American Modernism
Will Henry Stevens
Winged Form, 1939
tempera and oil on paper, mounted on canvas
26 x 4 7/8 in.
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Clarence W. Long
Learn More
Indiana born Will Henry Stevens studied at the Cincinnati Art Academy and the Art Students League in New York City. He moved to New Orleans, where he was a professor of art at Sophie Newcomb College, now part of Tulane University. He painted both abstract and traditional works; most of work has its origins in nature. It was easy for Stevens to translate the geometrical forms in nature into abstract compositions. Stevens was looking for a way to express spirituality through his art. His work exhibited an awareness of modern art, both American and European combined with the knowledge of naturalism. He incorporated both the grand vistas and the small details of nature in his art, sometimes combining natural forms with essentially abstract imagery.
Winged Form is almost a completely abstracted composition that is still rooted in nature. The composition suggests a bird in flight through the rhythmic arrangement of geometric and organic forms that gracefully glide across the canvas to create the sense of movement that implies flight.
Reference
Estill Curtis Pennington. Will Henry Stevens, 1881-1949: An Eye Transformed, A Hand Transforming, Augusta, GA: Morris Museum of Art, 1993. ISBN-13: 978-961827076
