Jay DeFeo: A Retrospective

DeFeo working on what was then titled Deathrose, 1960. Photograph by Burt Glinn. © Burt Glinn/Magnum Photos

Jay DeFeo said that she knew she wanted to be an artist as soon as she was “old enough to scribble.”

Jay DeFeo, The Rose, 1958–66 95.170

The Rose

This huge painting by Jay DeFeo is called The Rose. It is almost 11 feet tall and 7 feet wide. It was hidden behind a wall for twenty-one years, but now you can come and see it at the Whitney!

Installing The Rose

What does it take to exhibit a work of art that weighs almost a ton? Check out this slide show of installing The Rose at the Whitney. Paula Court took pictures of the installation from start to finish.

On February 15, The Rose arrived in New York from California, where it had just been shown at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

After it has been lowered off the truck, the Whitney’s art handlers steer The Rose to the Museum’s only entrance large enough for the work to go through!

Once inside, art handlers use a special system to lift up the metal cage that protects the work when it travels or is in storage.

The hoist and straps allow the cage to be lifted safely.

Now the cage is clear of the work.

The Rose is raised up ninety degrees so that it can go into the first of two elevators that it will ride during the installation process.

The team makes final preparations before The Rose enters the freight elevator. That’s the Whitney’s bookstore on the right.

In the Museum building, The Rose travels on a cart made especially for it.

Head art handler Joshua Rosenblatt closes the freight elevator doors.

Joshua Rosenblatt steers The Rose from the elevator into the Museum’s fourth floor galleries where the exhibition is being installed.

It takes a whole team of art handlers to roll The Rose to a gallery that has been specially prepared to show the work.

This is what The Rose looks like on the back!

The whole team lifts The Rose again.

Then The Rose is pushed into position in its own gallery.

And slowly brought upright.

The brace behind The Rose is secured to the wall.

Still left to do: patch and repair the wall, attach the frame and platform, adjust the lighting, silkscreen the wall text, and much more!

Although The Rose is her best known work, there’s so much more to DeFeo’s art than that one painting.

Don’t miss this exhibition of her drawings, paintings, collages, photographs, sculpture, and jewelry! On view through June 2, 2013.

Take A Sneak Peek. . .

The Eyes, 1958. Graphite on paper, 42 × 84 3/4 in. (106.7 × 215.3 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; gift of the Lannan Foundation 96.242.3
© 2009 The Jay DeFeo Trust / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Jay DeFeo used a photograph of her own eyes as a source to make this huge 7 1/2-foot-wide drawing. Imagine what the world would look like if you could see through these eyes!

The Rose, 1958–66. Oil with wood and mica on canvas, 128 7/8 × 92 1/4 × 11 in. (327.3 × 234.3 × 27.9 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; gift of the Estate of Jay DeFeo and purchase with funds from the Contemporary Painting and Sculpture Committee and the Judith Rothschild Foundation 95.170
© 2009 The Jay DeFeo Trust / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

DeFeo spent almost eight years working on The Rose! She applied thick paint, carved into it, scraped it away, and then added more paint.

After Image, 1970
Graphite, gouache, and transparent synthetic polymer on paper with cut-and-torn tracing paper, 14 1/2 × 19 1/2 in. (36.8 × 49.5 cm)
The Menil Collection, Houston; gift of Glenn Fukushima
© 2012 The Jay DeFeo Trust / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Photograph by Paul Hester

This drawing was inspired by a black-and-white photograph that DeFeo found in a book about shells. Notice the shapes that she used. They are similar to some of the shapes in The Rose and The Eyes.

Untitled, 1973. Collage with cut gelatin silver print, torn paper, and paint on gelatin silver print photogram, 10 × 8 in. (25.4 × 20.3 cm). San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; purchase through a gift of Robin Wright and the Accessions Committee Fund: gift of Barbara and Gerson Bakar, Shawn and Brook Byers, Jean and James E. Douglas, Jr., Pamela and Richard Kramlich, Mary and Howard Lester, and Nancy and Steven Oliver. © 2013 The Jay DeFeo Trust / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photograph by Don Ross

To make this collage, DeFeo used a photograph of a rose and a photogram of her hand. She carefully tore the rose out of the photograph and pasted it onto the photogram. Can you spot the palm of DeFeo’s hand in the picture? How about some of her fingers?

Untitled, from the Water Goggles series, 1977
Synthetic polymer, charcoal, ink, grease pencil and graphite on paper, 15 × 20 in. (38.1 × 50.8 cm)
Private collection
© 2012 The Jay DeFeo Trust / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Photograph by Ben Blackwell

DeFeo learned to swim late in life—when she was in her late forties. This is one of her drawings of her swimming goggles. She looked carefully at the light and reflections on the lenses as well as the black padding around them.

Reflections of Africa No. 8, 1989
Charcoal and graphite on paper, 11 5/8 × 17 1/8 in. (29.5 × 43.5 cm)
The Jay DeFeo Trust, Berkeley
© 2012 The Jay DeFeo Trust / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Photograph by Ben Blackwell

DeFeo made this drawing after she had visited Africa and climbed Mount Kenya in 1987. It was based on a cardboard tissue box that she photocopied so that it looked as though it was floating in space.

In 1989, DeFeo found an injured dove which she placed inside a box and took to the vet to try and save it. She remembered the way the bird looked at her from inside the box and was inspired to make two paintings of the bird, one of which you see here.