File:Jason Middlebrook DividingMyTime.jpg

Plank sculpture by Jason Middlebrook, Dividing My Time (Acrylic on elm, 98.25" x 26.5" x 1", 2017). The image illustrates a key body of work in Jason Middlebrook's career beginning in the mid-2000s, when he produced "plank sculptures," which feature detailed, painted abstract patterns on totemic, generally vertical sections of hardwoods. In this image, he uses hard-edged, mandala-like arrangements of straight, zigzagging lines that reference Op art and geometric abstractionists such as Ellsworth Kelly, Sol LeWitt, Bridget Riley and Frank Stella. This work was publicly exhibited in prominent exhibitions and discussed in major art journals and daily press publications.

Artist Jason Middlebrook. Copyright held by the artist.

Jason Middlebrook (artist)

Entire artwork

Yes

The image serves an informational and educational purpose as the primary means of illustrating a key body of work in Jason Middlebrook's career: his "plank sculptures" created from the mid-2000s forward—rough-hewn slabs of hardwood onto which he paints intricate, mainly abstract patterns. These works use totemic sections of local hardwoods—some 20 feet high—as sculptural canvasses onto which paints he inscribes detailed abstract patterns in glossy, vivid industrial colors. Made of woods such as cherry, walnut, cottonwood, maple and elm—and generally leaned against the wall like John McCracken sculptures or surfboards—the planks have smooth, flat surfaces but often retain the organic shapes and craggy, bark-encrusted textures of their edges. Their compositions range from hard-edged, mandala-like arrangements of straight, jagged or zigzagging lines that reference geometric abstraction. Because the article is about an artist and his work, the omission of the image would significantly limit a reader's understanding and ability to understand this foundational and longstanding body of work, which brought Middlebrook early recognition through exhibitions, coverage by major critics and publications and museum acquisitions. Middlebrook's work of this type and this work 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 Jason Middlebrook, and the work no longer is viewable, 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.