Forum 81
The 81st installment of Carnegie Museum of Art Forum series debuts a new body of work by acclaimed New Yorkâbased painter Ruth Root.
With a jolt of pattern and shape, Root’s eccentric paintings dazzle and perplex with their play of geometry, color, and found images. These new works are composed of two parts involving a shaped panel painted with acrylic and spray paint suspended from a flexible sewn form covered with the artist’s own fabric designs. Incorporating found imagery from news media, art history, online search engines, and objects from the museums’s collection, Root creates eye-popping patterns. Physically and visually unruly, these large-scale works push the boundaries of the medium and embrace the complexities of the visible world.
In addition to the exhibition, Root designed an interactive scavenger hunt based on her visits through the museum’s collection called “Looking and Drawing with Ruth Root.” Follow the artist’s playful prompts and discover the collection through her eyes. These free guides can be found outside of the Forum Gallery and in Scaife Gallery 16.
Ruth Root is organized by Eric Crosby, Henry J. Heinz II Acting Co-Director and Richard Armstrong Senior Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, with Hannah Turpin, Curatorial Assistant for Modern and Contemporary Art and Photography.
Part of → Forum Series
Forum Gallery presents the work of living artists in an ongoing series that invites them to expand their practice through a commission or new presentation of existing works. Initiated in 1990, and with 86 projects to date, the Forum series is an opportunity for artists to deepen their relationship to and understanding of the museum.