Tags | Collection of Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

We have 1 object tagged hoops.

One of a pair of vertical drawings designed to be reprinted as a 2-panel mural wall covering. Although each panel can be appreciated individually, it should be noted that elements introduced on the left panel are completed on the right and vice versa. The entire mural depicts musicians playing instruments on one panel and children playing with kites on the other, set against exotic architecture. The types of instruments, and the style of the clothing, kites and architecture suggest the scene takes place in the East (and is reminiscent of miniature paintings and prints from that part of the world.) The elements are drawn in a playful, somewhat flat manner. The vanishing point is below the bottom page equidistant from the outer edge of each panel. The front plane of the building faces the viewer while both sides of the building are also visible (as diagonal planes heading backwards.) There are three areas of action: at street level, on a roof terrace/garden, and in the middle within and outside the building. In this panel, on the street level, a child is rolling two large hoops (almost chest high) one white, one dark, while looking back over his shoulder at a small black and white ball (similar to a soccer ball) perched on a railing. Hovering above and to the right of the hoops, a large fanciful, flying insect, like an abstract dragon-fly. Just below it another smaller hoop rolls near to the right edge of the scene. The boy appears to be in the shadow cast by a large building. There is a tall open portal in the front of the building through which an interior courtyard is visible. A child stands half hidden (one leg, one arm, half a head) in the doorway, holding. an 8-pointed star on a stick (a pinwheel.) Further back in the courtyard, another child stands on a platform about to climb a ladder that appears to lead to the roof terrace. The terrace has a hexagonal shape, a waist high parapet (ledge) all around, dainty cross and circle patterned tile floor, and a gazebo structure in the center. Four children are on the roof (positioned at 10 o’clock, 12 o’clock and 2 o’clock.) At far left (10 o’clock) two children on tip toes lean over the parapet. One has both elbows on the ledge and looks downward, the second looks upward, holding in his right hand a string attached to a kite (visible only on the adjacent panel - the 'butterfly.' ) Towards the back ledge (12 o’clock) a child looks up at the kite he holds over his head - it resembles a fish skeleton with a kite tail trailing from the fish tail. To this right, (2 o’clock) a child straddles the ledge (one foot over the side), holding a kite string in his outstretched hands (the kite is the star on the other panel.) The gazebo has a pointed roof tipped with a spire above which a walled structure rises (part of the garden wall in the adjacent panel.) On the right of the building, near street level there is a large four paned window with decorations resembling crossed boomerangs. On the middle level a balcony protrudes from the building. A striped curtain has blown out from the window and drapes over the balcony rail. A partial figure (half a head, half a chest) peers from behind a window on the balcony. A child hangs from an opening in the balcony rail. (The balcony rail is completed on the other panel.) The top of the paper appears discolored. Among the striking features of this panel are the way the shadows cast by aspects of the architecture appear as large flat geometric shapes and offering respite from the delicate busyness of the patterned walls and the bold linear elements of the ladder, the balcony, and gazebo. The artist makes wonderful use of diagonals, light and shadow, multiple patterns and geometric shapes, to create fantasy spaces on different planes, not always decipherable, with a few mysterious half-hidden figures for good measure, all of which keeps the viewer engaged. As this is a 2-dimensional, monochrome drawing (shades of gray on a light background) one of the exciting aspects of the artist’s skill is how she juxtaposes a variety of lines and patterns against each other, some dark and dense, some light and sparse, to distinguish areas and elements from one another, giving each its own voice in the artwork.

Drawing, Serenade, 1948
graphite, pen and ink on linen.
Gift of Matthew L. Edelman.
2016-37-2

This object is part of the Drawings, Prints, and Graphic Design collection.