T.V. Bulge from the collection of UNLV Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art

T.V. Bulge, 1969

Acrylic on canvas

90.5 x 120 x 1.25 in

Inv: 2019.02.001

In Storage

John Torreano
T.V. Bulge, 1969
Acrylic on canvas
Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art Collection
Gift of Mary and Weston Naef in Memory of Frances Marie McNabola and William David McNabola
2019.02.001

This seminal painting was first shown at the 1969 Whitney Annual Exhibition in New York City, before being prominently displayed in the home of Weston J. and Mary Naef and eventually gifted to the Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art.

T.V. Bulge exemplifies Torreano’s use of dots (and later gemstones) afloat in abstract grounds to construct the visual perception of spatial depth. If you focus on the dots and move to the other side of the painting, some of the dots will disappear from view. As your eye loses focus on the dots, your focus shifts to the painterly space behind, resulting in a figure-ground flip. This approach captures Torreano’s effort, across the years of his career and a variety of mediums, to create work that incorporates “viewer location as content” through a concept referred to as “movement-oriented perception.” In fact, Torreano’s work has been described by fellow artist, Richard Artschwager, “as paintings that stand still and makes YOU move.”

Item Description: A painting covered with horizontal streaks of green, brown, blue, and pink. Lines of small blue and black dots run across the image. Curved lines at either side of the painting suggest the bulging edges of a cathode-ray tube TV screen.

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From UNLV Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art

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About the artist

John Torreano

American

b. 1941

John Torreano is an American artist from Flint, Michigan. He is currently clinical professor of studio art at the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development at New York University. In his career Torreano has visited nearly every major art school in the United States and Canada as an "artist in residence."

Additional Details

Additional Artworks

Transplantation, 2018

Re UnCERN (Stationary Front), 2011

David Hockney (Hockney in London), 2007

Panoptic Liger XIV, 2005

Hugs 'End of the Rainbow' Series XIX, c. 2005

Hugs 'End of the Rainbow' Series XI, 2005

Untitled, 2003

Streaming, 1999

About the artist

John Torreano