{"data":{"id":"13015","type":"artwork","attributes":{"id":13015,"topgoose_id":4439,"portfolio_id":null,"tms_id":13015,"title":"Milky Way","display_artist_text":"Pat Steir","display_date":"2000","accession_number":"2001.22","dimensions":"Sheet: 40 7/8 × 39 3/4 in. (103.8 × 101 cm)\r\nPlate: 29 15/16 × 29 9/16 in. (76 × 75.1 cm)","medium":"Aquatint","department":"collection","classification":"Prints","credit_line":"Purchase, with funds from Ruth and Richard Shack and David W. Kiehl in memory of Karen McCready","is_virtual":false,"is_portfolio":false,"portfolio_tms_id":null,"portfolio":null,"edition":"16/25 | 10 APs, 5 TPs, BAT","publication_info":"Printed and published by Crown Point Press","description":"\u003cp\u003ePat Steir, \u003cem\u003eMilky Way\u003c/em\u003e, 2000. Aquatint, sheet: 40 7/8 × 39 3/4 in. (103.8 × 101 cm)\r\nPlate: 29 15/16 × 29 9/16 in. (76 × 75.1 cm). Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; purchase, with funds from Ruth and Richard Shack and David W. Kiehl in memory of Karen McCready 2001.22. © Pat Steir\u003c/p\u003e","object_label":"\u003cp\u003eWith its arresting washes of indigo punctuated by spattered dots, \u003ci\u003eMilky Way\u003c/i\u003e—one of a series of prints on the theme of natural phenomena—appears nonrepresentational, the end result of spontaneous, improvisatory procedures. Yet while this image (like Pat Steir’s earlier, landmark series of \u003ci\u003eWaterfall\u003c/i\u003e paintings) depends on the effects of gravity on the medium and the exigencies of chance, it was also precisely planned and realized according to a set of rules that the artist determined for herself. Steir’s approach is at once contingent on process and prearranged—a duality paralleled in the way that her work traverses the boundary between abstraction and representation. For all of its abstract qualities, the loopy lines of dots and illuminated flashes of \u003ci\u003eMilky Way\u003c/i\u003e conjure the experience of seeing the cosmos from our position on the earth.\u003c/p\u003e","ai_alt_text":"Abstract blue square with scattered gold and red paint splatters across the center.","alt_text":null,"visual_description":null,"on_view":false,"created_at":"2017-08-30T15:50:45.000-04:00","updated_at":"2026-02-06T11:59:46.131-05:00","images":[{"id":103580,"url":"https://whitneymedia.org/assets/artwork/13015/2001_22_cropped.jpg"}]},"relationships":{"artists":{"data":[{"id":"1279","type":"artist"}]}}}}