4 part painting (Nuremberg)

Jean Spencer 1942 - 1998

Summary

Quadriptych consisting of canvases with three bands of horizontal colour extending across the canvas. Nuremberg, Germany, inspired the title as Spencer was taking part in a group exhibition there in the year of the work's creation.

Display Label

4 part painting (Nuremberg) 1989 Jean Spencer 1942-98 Acrylic on canvas Jean Spencer was a member of the collective Countervail. The title was chosen by this group of women artists in 1990 as a word that defies definition. For example, it can mean the same as counterbalance, but is also used in the sense of fighting against, or acting with equal power. The group resisted the pressure of an easy label. Spencer thought of a picture as a space of countervailing energies, of power sharing, and of struggle. She described her colours as fighting against the system which divides them. The colour boundaries could serve as a metaphor for the borders of nation states. Spencer herself was an internationalist, exhibiting more in Europe than in her native Britain. She took part in a group show in Nuremberg in 1989, when this picture was painted. Gift of the artist’s family 2002.67