Pool (Primary Title)
Robert Cottingham, American, born 1935 (Artist)
“I wanted to capture something with brashness, and some of the vitality, especially, of American cities. . . . It was the construction of these signs, and the mix of materials that was being used, the glass and the chrome, the fabric for awnings, neon tubes, steel. It was chain, all kinds of brackets, and all this hardware, assembled to sell you something, or to just name the place.” —Robert Cottingham
Cottingham referred to his camera as a “high-speed sketchbook” used to record scenes that caught his attention as potential paintings. Influenced by American painters such as Edward Hopper, Cottingham was particularly drawn to signs on buildings. By cropping the edge of the scene in Pool, the artist references the photographic process he used to begin the painting, while also fragmenting the words in the signs. Devoid of their meaning as titles, the signs function as formal elements—shapes and colors—rather than mere literal depictions. Cottingham also utilized the hardware that attached the signs to their architectural façade as dynamic lines within the composition, producing a painting that can be interpreted simultaneously as “realistic” and “abstract.”
Virginia Beach Arts Center, Va. Beach VA: "Made in America," 5 April - 11 June 1989 [see exh. cat. under Published]
"Contemporary Art from the Virginia Museum," College of William and Mary, Muscarelle Museum, Williamsburg VA, 30 Sept - 15 Nov. 1987
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