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| Size | Artwork only | With framing | Framing + acrylic |
|---|---|---|---|
| 50×70 cm | — | USD 210 | USD 236 |
Product details
Artist: Julie Mehretu
Artist Julie Mehretu (born 1970) is known for her large-scale abstract paintings. Born in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, to an Ethiopian father and an American mother, she moved with her parents to Michigan in the United States in 1977. In 2020, Time magazine named her one of its 100 most influential people. According to available information, her works have achieved total auction sales of approximately US$220 million, making her one of today’s bestselling living women artists. Renowned institutions such as MoMA and the Brooklyn Museum have collected her work since the early 2000s and credit Mehretu with “reinventing abstraction” in the 21st century.
Artwork title: Mashes (Mhos)
Poster size: 50*70 cm
《Mashes (Mhos)》 (2018–2019)
This work is one of Mehretu's most important recent large-scale works in ink and acrylic. It was shown at the 2019 Venice Biennale and in her subsequent major solo retrospective.
Creative background and visual layers: The underlying layer of her works usually originates in photographs of real events marked by intense political or social conflict, such as the Arab Spring, protests at the U.S. border, or wildfires caused by extreme weather. Mehretu digitally blurs and enlarges these photographs, then prints them on canvas as a kind of “background noise” charged with emotion. She subsequently layers extremely frenetic, dynamic black ink lines, spray paint, and marks over them.
Meaning of the work: “Mashes” (pulps or mixtures) and “Mhos” (mhos, a unit of electrical conductance and the reciprocal of the ohm) in the title suggest the transmission of energy and the dissolution of chaos. The painting captures collective anxiety and tension amid social upheaval. In her hands, once-figurative scenes of protest or disaster become a dynamic, almost symphonic release of abstract energy.
* Actual poster photographs.
Paper & medium
About the artist
Artist Julie Mehretu (born 1970) is known for her large-scale abstract paintings. Born in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, to an Ethiopian father and an American mother, she moved with her parents to Michigan in the United States in 1977. In 2020, Time magazine named her one of its 100 most influential people. According to available information, her works have achieved total auction sales of approximately US$220 million, making her one of today’s bestselling living women artists. Renowned institutions such as MoMA and the Brooklyn Museum have collected her work since the early 2000s and credit Mehretu with “reinventing abstraction” in the 21st century.