Accession Number
246863
Medium
Ink and acrylic on canvas
Dimensions
228.6 × 457.2 cm (90 × 180 in.)
Classification
N/A
Credit Line
Purchased with funds provided by Lisa and Steven Tananbaum
Background & Context
Background Story
Julie Mehretus A Love Supreme from 2014-2018 is an ink and acrylic painting on canvas named after John Coltranes 1965 jazz masterpiece, a work of spiritual devotion that Mehretu reimagines as a visual composition of dynamic energy and architectural complexity. Mehretu, whose large-scale paintings combine architectural plans, maps, and gestural abstraction in compositions of overwhelming visual density, titled this work after Coltranes album as an homage to the spiritual aspiration and formal innovation of the jazz musicians most celebrated recording. The extended creation period of 2014-2018, spanning four years, reflects Mehretus practice of building up her compositions through successive layers of ink drawing and acrylic paint, each layer modifying and responding to the ones beneath it in a process that mirrors the improvisational structure of jazz itself. The ink and acrylic medium allows Mehretu to combine the precision of architectural drafting with the gestural freedom of abstract painting, creating surfaces in which recognizable buildings and urban plans dissolve into a turbulence of mark-making that suggests both the physical energy of city life and the spiritual aspiration of Coltranes music. The title A Love Supreme connects the visual energy of Mehretus painting to Coltranes spiritual journey, suggesting that abstraction itself can be a form of devotion and that the act of painting, like the act of playing music, can be a search for transcendence.
Cultural Impact
Mehretus A Love Supreme is one of the most ambitious paintings of the early 21st century, and its combination of architectural drafting, gestural abstraction, and spiritual aspiration has influenced a generation of painters who seek to address global politics and urban experience through the language of abstraction. The title connects her work to Coltranes musical masterpiece and the tradition of spiritual devotion in African American culture.
Why It Matters
A monumental ink and acrylic painting by Mehretu spanning 2014-2018, titled after Coltranes jazz masterpiece and combining architectural plans with gestural abstraction in successive layers that mirror improvisational structure, searching for spiritual transcendence through the energy of mark-making.
