Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art

Gray Series features new paintings by Southern California artist Ruth Pastine who builds on her explorations into the phenomenological experience of color, light, and space. By juxtaposing and intermixing intense saturated primary colors with complementary opposites, Pastine creates soft-edged optical fields that dematerialize the canvas surface. This immersive experience is heightened by custom-engineered beveled stretchers, which cast light-enhancing shadows around the canvas periphery creating the appearance of the work floating in the architectural space they occupy.

Promised gift to the permanent collection