In the Balance: Between Painting and Sculpture, 1965–1985

This work is part of a series of paintings based on aprons, an item familiar to both domestic and artistic spaces. Kay WalkingStick began work on these canvases in 1973, when at age thirty-eight she enrolled in a master’s program at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and was able to make art outside her home for the first time. Here, this familiar protective covering is pinned by its strings to the points of a triangle above a paint-splattered expanse. The draped form suggests an absent body, while spatters of color allude to the process of producing an abstract composition. The result is a painting that references both the artist who made it and the act of its making. The hanging lines also resonated with the artist’s surroundings: WalkingStick noted the form’s similarity to the drooping suspension cables she observed driving over bridges during her daily commute from New Jersey. “The bridges were the best part of that drive,” she explained. “I think they are the best sculpture in the city.”