Suzanne McClelland
Suzanne McClelland, Ideal Proportions (Steve and John), 2013. Charcoal, dry pigment, polymer, and spray paint on portrait linen, 84 × 144 in. (213.4 × 365.8 cm), Collection of the artist; courtesy Team Gallery, New York and Shane Campbell Gallery, Chicago. Copyright Suzanne McClelland. Photograph by Isabel Asma Penzlien
Born 1959 in Jacksonville, FL
Lives and Works in New York, NY
Since the early 1990s, Suzanne McClelland’s paintings have begun with language in both its written and spoken forms, reflecting her understanding that our own interpretation of words and numbers can be even more important than their formal definitions.
The expressive painting Ideal Proportions (Squeeze—a winning hand) addresses the ways that human bodies are quantified and described by the objective, analytic language of numerical measurements. For her, numbers do not—despite their presumption of factual accuracy—represent the body as it is but rather open a space in the viewer's mind in which he or she "creates" an image of the body. The panels of the diptych Ideal Proportions: Steve and John feature strings of digits representing the ideal male proportions according to the influential bodybuilders Steve Reeves and John McCallum.
Works by Suzanne McClelland
-
Suzanne McClelland, Ideal Proportions (Steve and John), 2013. Charcoal, dry pigment, polymer, and spray paint on portrait linen, 84 × 144 in. (213.4 × 365.8 cm), Collection of the artist; courtesy Team Gallery, New York and Shane Campbell Gallery, Chicago. Copyright Suzanne McClelland. Photograph by Isabel Asma Penzlien
-
Suzanne McClelland, Ideal Proportions (Squeeze—a winning hand), 2013. Charcoal, dry pigment, polymer, and spray paint on portrait linen, 72 x 84 in. (182.9 x 213.4 cm.) Collection of the artist; courtesy Team Gallery, New York and Shane Campbell Gallery, Chicago. Copyright Suzanne McClelland. Photograph by Isabel Asma Penzlien
