- Artist/Maker:
- Morris Louis
- Bio:
- American, 1912-1962
- Title:
- Man Reaching for a Star
- Portfolio/Series:
- The Charred Journal Series
- Date:
- 1952
- Medium:
- Magna on canvas
- Dimensions:
- 34 × 28 1/2 in. (86.4 × 72.4 cm)
- Credit Line:
- Gift of Ruth Bocour in Memory of Leonard Bocour
- Accession Number:
- 1997-126
- Copyright:
- © 1951 Morris Louis
Not On View
The orientation of this painting has been debated, as Morris Louis was flexible on this aspect of his work. At one time, it was displayed at the museum upside down and referred to as Untitled (Jewish Star). During preparations for the present exhibition, arrows on the back were determined to have been made by the artist, and to indicate the orientation in which it is now shown. When it is hung this way, a figure emerges. The painting is now identified as Louis’s Man Reaching for a Star.
This work is one of seven largely abstract paintings from Morris Louis’s Charred Journal series, created as a response to the book burnings carried out by the Nazis during World War II. Louis’s only work to provide insight into his moral and political concerns, it is also unique in reflecting his Jewish identity. The blackened background is reminiscent of burnt paper, from which rise white letters, numbers, agitated swirls, a large abstracted figure, delineated in brown and yellow, and a Star of David. The artist described his white letters and symbols as rising like ashes from the charred page; they may also be seen as metaphors for resistance and survival. Created during the early 1950s, when the United States Congress was seeking to purge perceived Communists, leftists, and liberals from public life, the series can be further interpreted as a statement against censorship.
This work is one of seven largely abstract paintings from Morris Louis’s Charred Journal series, created as a response to the book burnings carried out by the Nazis during World War II. Louis’s only work to provide insight into his moral and political concerns, it is also unique in reflecting his Jewish identity. The blackened background is reminiscent of burnt paper, from which rise white letters, numbers, agitated swirls, a large abstracted figure, delineated in brown and yellow, and a Star of David. The artist described his white letters and symbols as rising like ashes from the charred page; they may also be seen as metaphors for resistance and survival. Created during the early 1950s, when the United States Congress was seeking to purge perceived Communists, leftists, and liberals from public life, the series can be further interpreted as a statement against censorship.
Information may change as a result of ongoing research.