Holt Quentel
(Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 1961 - )
Blue P
1987
Latex on canvas
101 x 89 in. (256.5 x 226.1 cm)
Collection of the Akron Art Museum
Gift of Barbara Schwartz in memory of Eugene M. Schwartz
2008.170
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Quentel paints on new canvas and then deliberately distresses its surface, pierces it with grommets and threads rope through it. Her painstaking technique creates the effect of an old battered commercial awning or tarpaulin—a familiar yet anonymous object. While Richard Estes (on the adjacent wall to the left) uses photorealistic painting to portray consumerist abundance, Quentel’s paintings suggest only the remnants of commerce.