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No. 9
Artist
Judith Godwin
(American, 1930 - 2021)
Date1957
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsUnframed: 80 × 58 in. (203.2 × 147.32 cm)
Framed: 80 1/4 × 58 5/8 × 1 5/8 in. (203.84 × 148.91 × 4.13 cm)
Framed: 80 1/4 × 58 5/8 × 1 5/8 in. (203.84 × 148.91 × 4.13 cm)
Credit LineCollection of the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Museum purchase
Object number2017.1
Status
Not on viewCopyright© Judith Godwin
Category
Label TextIn the 1950s, Judith Godwin was at the center of the New York art world. She studied with Hans Hofmann; socialized at Manhattan’s Cedar Tavern with Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, and Mark Rothko; and shared a studio with Franz Kline. She was one of the few women to exhibit her work in the Stable Gallery Invitational shows, and she had solo exhibitions at renowned dealer Betty Parsons’s Section Eleven gallery. Her work of the 1950s embodies the style and spirit of Abstract Expressionist painting, in which the canvas is a field of spontaneously applied color, brushwork, and abstract forms. Like Elaine de Kooning, Grace Hartigan, Joan Mitchell, and other female artists of her generation, however, Godwin received less attention than her male counterparts.
The Modern’s No. 9, 1957, exemplifies the robust yet lyrical character of Godwin’s style. Thrusting diagonal passages of black and deep purple span the large canvas, interspersed with areas of earthy green, blue, and brighter spots of yellow. A sensation of balance and opposition governs the internal energy of the composition—what Hofmann famously described as a painting’s “push and pull” dynamics between shape and color, open and closed form, solid and void, movement and rest. Godwin’s paint handling varies from opaque to transparent, so diluted in some sections that the medium drips down the canvas.
Godwin acknowledged the profound influence of nature, Zen philosophy, and dance on her painting. In 1950, while still a student at Mary Baldwin College in her home state of Virginia, she invited the Martha Graham Dance Company to perform at the school. Graham became a muse and later, in New York, a friend to the artist. The calligraphic sweeps and arcs of brushwork in paintings such as No. 9, reflect Godwin’s absorption of Graham’s expressive movements.
The Modern’s No. 9, 1957, exemplifies the robust yet lyrical character of Godwin’s style. Thrusting diagonal passages of black and deep purple span the large canvas, interspersed with areas of earthy green, blue, and brighter spots of yellow. A sensation of balance and opposition governs the internal energy of the composition—what Hofmann famously described as a painting’s “push and pull” dynamics between shape and color, open and closed form, solid and void, movement and rest. Godwin’s paint handling varies from opaque to transparent, so diluted in some sections that the medium drips down the canvas.
Godwin acknowledged the profound influence of nature, Zen philosophy, and dance on her painting. In 1950, while still a student at Mary Baldwin College in her home state of Virginia, she invited the Martha Graham Dance Company to perform at the school. Graham became a muse and later, in New York, a friend to the artist. The calligraphic sweeps and arcs of brushwork in paintings such as No. 9, reflect Godwin’s absorption of Graham’s expressive movements.