Tablet 164
Primary
Eleanore Mikus
(Detroit, Michigan, 1927–Groton, New York, 2017)
NationalityAmerican, North America
Date1967-1968
MediumEpoxy resin on fiberglass
DimensionsSight: 51 3/4 × 30 × 1 15/16 in. (131.4 × 76.2 × 5 cm)
Framed: 52 3/16 × 30 3/4 in. (132.6 × 78.1 cm)
Framed: 52 3/16 × 30 3/4 in. (132.6 × 78.1 cm)
Credit LineBlanton Museum of Art, The University of Texas at Austin, Gift of Gabrielle Burns, courtesy the Artist and Mitchell Algus Gallery, 2004.107
Rights Statement
Collection AreaModern and Contemporary Art
Object number2004.107
On View
Not on viewCollection Highlight
Shortly after moving to New York City in 1960, Eleanore Mikus debuted her characteristic tablet paintings, so called for the tablet’s connotations of recordkeeping and history. While tapping into trends that were pervasive at the time—a monochrome palette, the grid, unconventional materials—Mikus managed to achieve a unique tactility in her work. As artist Luis Camnitzer recalled, her nuanced paintings were “the perfect antidote to the times, an oasis in the desert.”
The tablets are the products of repetition and chance. To make them, Mikus laid irregular pieces of fiberglass on her studio floor, “the more uneven, the better.” Mikus composed her tablets blindly, bracing each block facedown and gluing it to the next, “all the time thinking how the front would look without actually seeing it.” In Tablet 164, the foundation dips and pleats beneath layers of epoxy resin. These protrusions bear the impression of the artist’s hand, giving the work a corporeal quality. Shadows pool around peaks and valleys on the surface, simultaneously evoking a Minimalist grid and topographical model.
The tablets are the products of repetition and chance. To make them, Mikus laid irregular pieces of fiberglass on her studio floor, “the more uneven, the better.” Mikus composed her tablets blindly, bracing each block facedown and gluing it to the next, “all the time thinking how the front would look without actually seeing it.” In Tablet 164, the foundation dips and pleats beneath layers of epoxy resin. These protrusions bear the impression of the artist’s hand, giving the work a corporeal quality. Shadows pool around peaks and valleys on the surface, simultaneously evoking a Minimalist grid and topographical model.
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