Painting
Ash #2/125C
- Description
- Painting titled Ash #2/125C by Michael Mulhern from his Ash Road series. The painting is made with oil and aluminum paint on gessoed paper adhered to canvas.
- Historical Notes
- Michael Mulhern is known for his large monochromatic works on stressed paper or raw canvas. He enlivened the surfaces of his paintings with metallic pigments, creating texture by daubing, dripping, and dissolving his paints. For many years he lived and worked in a loft on Cedar Street near the World Trade Center. Michael Mulhern began the paintings of the Ash Road series before the attacks. After 9/11, Mulhern returned to the series, incorporating ash from the collapsed Twin Towers that had filled his apartment.
Curator's Comment
Fifteen months after 9/11, Michael Mulhern moved back into his ninth-floor loft at 125 Cedar Street, one block south of the World Trade Center. Until September 11, 2001, Mulhern had been able to look out his studio windows and see office workers at their desks in the South Tower. That morning, his windows shattered and smoke, and debris filled his home and workplace of more than 30 years. He put on the respirator and goggles that he typically wore while working with aluminum paint. This equipment came in handy as the air quality worsened. Late that afternoon, Mulhern evacuated his studio wearing his safety equipment as he walked north, away from the disaster site.
Faced with cleaning his studio in the months that followed, Mulhern noticed that World Trade Center ash had settled on his painter’s palette. He used that paint when he resumed work on the series of paintings he had begun in summer 2001. Eerily, he had already called the series Ash Road, a title that took on new significance after 9/11.
Faced with cleaning his studio in the months that followed, Mulhern noticed that World Trade Center ash had settled on his painter’s palette. He used that paint when he resumed work on the series of paintings he had begun in summer 2001. Eerily, he had already called the series Ash Road, a title that took on new significance after 9/11.
- Accession Number: C.2012.391.2
- Dimensions: 106 in X 104 in
- Dimensions (Metric): 269.24 cm X 264.16 cm
- Source: Cynthia Reeves
- Credit Line: Gift of the Mulhern family, courtesy of CYNTHIA-REEVES
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