File:Kathleen Kucka Hot Plate Burn Iron Burn 1993.jpg

Installation image of Kathleen Kucka exhibition at PS 122 Gallery, New York City: Hot Plate Burn and Iron Burn paintings (burns on canvas, 85" x 75", 1993). The image illustrates an early body of work by Kathleen Kucka in the 1990s: her paintings and works on paper which employed repetitive patterns of scorch and burn markings and combined modernist abstraction with feminist critique. As in these pieces, these compositions of these works were often structured in linear, gridded or circular patterns that both invoked minimalism and emphasized the conceptual and sculptural aspect of the work, while also calling to mind themes of natural destruction and regeneration. Much of this early work was also monochromatic or black and white. The image presents an exhibition image showing two representative works employing gridded patterns of burn holes. This type of work was publicly exhibited in prominent exhibitions, discussed in major art journals and daily press publications, and acquired by museums.

Artist Kathleen Kucka. Copyright held by the artist.

Kathleen Kucka

Installation view

Yes

The image serves an informational and educational purpose as the primary means of illustrating an early body of work in Kathleen Kucka's career from the 1990s, when she used irons, hotplates and charcoal lighters to scorch and mark repetitive patterns on canvas and paper surfaces, drawing on aspects of formalism, the Pattern and Decoration movement, and in her use of domestic tools, feminist critique. The "burn" works were inspired by twentieth-century artists such as Lucio Fontana and the German Zero Group, minimalists who sought to resurrect art by first destroying or effacing canvasses. Critics characterized this work as naturalistic and abstract but not random, with each burn mark developing uniquely in an organic way, and in tandem, producing rhythmic sequences. Because the article is about an artist and her work, the omission of the image would significantly limit a reader's understanding and ability to understand this lasting and foundational body of work, which brought Kucka early recognition through exhibitions and coverage by major critics and publications. Kucka's work of this type and this series is discussed in the article and by critics cited in the article.

There is no free equivalent of this or any other of this series by Kathleen Kucka, so the image cannot be replaced by a free image.

The image will not affect the value of the original work or limit the copyright holder's rights or ability to distribute the original due to its low resolution and the general workings of the art market, which values the actual work of art. Because of the low resolution, illegal copies could not be made.