Educational
2008
American
Acrylic, gouache, photo collage, resin on wood panel
Place Made,United States
Unframed: 72 × 72 × 2 1/8 in. (182.88 × 182.88 × 5.4 cm)
2009.333
Not on view

I throw all my obsessions and loves into the work, and I try not to be too embarrassed about any of it. I love nature, I love gardening, I love watching birds, and all of that gets into the work. --Fred Tomaselli

Tomaselli is known for his intricately layered images that range in subject matter from utopian visions of nature to apocalyptic events. Woodpecker belongs to a series of magnificent birds that derive from Tomaselli’s deep interest in nature and his love of ornamentation. The artist revels in an almost psychedelic overload of imagery and keeps drawers full of clippings—all neatly archived and categorized for use in his paintings. In Woodpecker, collaged images of beaks form the bird’s own bill and images of flowers make up its body. Over these collaged elements, and extending throughout the painting’s surface, elaborate patterns recall medieval manuscript illumination as well as Tibetan thangka paintings.

Label copy 2012, John Ravenal

1x4 cleats are on Platform L1 Lv.4
Purchased with funds contributed by Pamela K. and William A. Royall, Jr., and the Sydney and Frances Lewis Endowment Fund
The Singing and the Silenc: Birds in Contemporary Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum, October 31, 2014 - February 22, 2015

Domestic, Wild, Divine: Artists Look at Animals, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, November 21, 2012 - September 4, 2013

Aspen Art Museum, Colorado, August 1 - October 11, 2009

White Cube, London, March 27, - May 16, 2009
© Fred Tomaselli

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