Constructed Paintings, 1971 - 1973

When McCollum decided to become an artist in the late 1960s, it came in the form of systematic and task-based procedures for producing self-referential works of art. Shown here are the works If Love Had Wings: A Perpetual Canon (1972), Untitled (1971), Deep Connections (1973), and Linda Taylor (1971) from the ‘Constructed Paintings’ series. For this series, he deliberately chose materials found outside of art supply stores, hardware shops, supermarkets, and boat supply retailers to create repetitive and expansive yet unique artworks. The process involved cutting large pieces of canvas into uniform strips and squares, batch-dyeing them various colors, while also applying sand and glitter. Once dried, McCollum used varnish and an assortment of colored caulk to adhere the individual pieces together, creating a unique pattern for each painting. Many tenets formed from this series became foundational to McCollum’s philosophy and working practice.

Allan McCollum (born 1944 in Los Angeles) has explored how objects achieve public and personal meaning over the past 50 years. As a self-taught artist, the beginning of McCollum’s career in the late 1960s was influenced by wide-ranging sources: from factory work to musical rounds, to hacienda inspired brick- and tilework commonly found in Southern Californian architecture. He was also influenced by Hans Hofmann’s essays on abstraction in modern art and spiritual theosophical writings. Focusing recently on collaborations with regional communities and historical societies in different parts of the world, McCollum investigates the contradictions we make between unique handmade artworks and objects of mass production. He lives and works in New York.

Access the Audio Guide by Magalí Arriola.