Absent Myself

Label

This somber painting’s wood surface is built up with sheer paint layers, allowing the work to embrace both light and dark. A veil of gray light appears to come from within the multilayered surface, casting a halo over the dim foreground. A vertical line running through the middle of the canvas creates a disjuncture, as Nancy Haynes shows us the duality of her state of mind. The artist observed that painting "is an area of privacy and solace, where resistances and contradictions find a place for themselves." We could interpret this work as Haynes actively grappling with and working through her feelings using the medium of paint. The hollowness created and echoed by the title, Absent Myself, gives us an intimate glimpse into the heavy emotions Haynes seems both to confront and try to embrace.

From the 2022 exhibition A Space for Dialogue 109, Nothing Gold Can Stay, curated by Amy Zaretsky '23, Conroy Intern

Course History

ANTH 50, COCO 2, HIV/AIDS Through a Biosocial Lens: 30 Years of a Modern Plague, Sienna Craig, Timothy Lahey, Spring 2013

SART 31, SART 72, Painting II, Painting III, Jennifer Caine, Fall 2014

COCO 2.3, ANTH 50.6, HIV/AIDS Through a Bio-social Lens: Thirty Years of a Modern Plague, Sienna Craig, Timothy Lahey, Spring 2015

Exhibition History

A Space for Dialogue 109, Nothing Gold Can Stay, Amy Zarestky, Class of 2023, Alvin P. Gutman Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, 29 October - 23 December 2022

A Space for Dialogue 78, Abstracting Emotion, The Intersection between Black and White, Gwendolyn Tetirick, Class of 2013, The Kathryn Conroy Intern, Main Lobby, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, August 10-October 20, 2013.

Churchill P. Lathrop Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire.

Modern and Contemporary Art at Dartmouth: Highlights from the Hood Museum of Art, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, September 26,2009-March 15, 2010.

Publication History

Brian P. Kennedy and Emily Shubert Burke, Modern and Contemporary Art at Dartmouth: Highlights from the Hood Museum of Art, Hanover: Trustees of Dartmouth College, 2009 p.75, no.51.

Gwendolyn Tetirick, A Space for Dialogue 78, Abstracting Emotion, The Intersection between Black and White, Hanover, New Hampshire: Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, 2013, ill. cover page.

Provenance

John Good Gallery, New York, New York; sold to present collection, 1989.

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