Lisa Bradley
Stone Chime
1978
Brush and black ink on white paper
30 in. x 22 1/4 in.
Gift of the Betty Parsons Foundation
Lisa Bradley, born in 1951, is an American artist based out of New York City, whose “process is central to the meaning of her work”. 1 Bradley’s works are meant to be a meditative experience in which the audience will connect subconsciously to a piece. While Bradley is seen as an abstract painter, her titles are expressive and suggests a meaning “but it is hard to say exactly what it is; the image is an intuitive experience”. 2
Found in the St. Mary’s College Collection, Stone Chime, dated 1978, is a brush and black ink drawing on white paper that depicts three simplistic groupings of abstract black lines in a triangular formation.The triangular placement of the three groupings of brushstrokes and the circular shape of the top two in combination with the triangular bottom cluster is reminiscent of female sex organs with the movement of the strokes moving downwards In the bottom right corner of the piece, Bradley has signed her name fluidly in ink.
Typically, Bradley attempts to capture velocity and motion within her pieces through the use of texture created by blue, black, and grey oil paint brushstrokes on canvas, but, the simplicity of this piece and its lack of depth through the utilization of a minimalistic black and white contrast emphasizes a singular motion and less of a forward momentum: the emphasis in Stone Chime becomes a narrative about the residual path that time leaves. The drawing was donated to the College by the Betty Parsons Foundation, established after the death of the major art dealer, who served as an early mentor to Bradley.
1. "Lisa Bradley." Hollis Taggart Galleries (2016) Accessed November 08, 2016. http://www.hollistaggart.com/artists/lisa-bradley. ↩
2. Jonathan Goodman, ""Hard to Explain": Lisa Bradley's Mysterious Abstractions," Artcritical: The Online Magazine of Art and Ideas (February 18, 2015) Accessed November 08, 2016. http://www.artcritical.com/2015/02/18/jonathan-goodmann-on-lisa-bradley/. ↩
-Ivy Rose Smith