Mary Weatherford: I’ve Seen Gray Whales Go By
This book was published on the occasion of Mary Weatherford: I’ve Seen Gray Whales Go By at Gagosian, 555 West 24th Street, New York, the artist’s first exhibition with the gallery. Weatherford makes large paintings comprising grounds of spontaneously sponged paint on heavy linen canvases surmounted by one or more carefully shaped and placed colored neon tubes. While her previous paintings have mainly made reference to the experience of places or climates, the new works draw upon the artist’s responses to current events and her experience of premodern narrative pictorial compositions.
The publication features an essay by curator and art historian John Elderfield that examines this new inspiration, and the plate section is interspersed with examples of Weatherford’s varied source material, including a nursery rhyme, a page of sheet music, and an entry from artist Agnes Pelton’s journal.