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Label Text The viewpoint of this mountainous landscape is from high above and far away, as if we’re standing atop another mountain. The atmospheric and aggressive grey clouds are as tangible as anything on land. Painted in deep greens, browns, and blues, Mountain Wood is richly wild. The mountain-forms lose detail as they stretch, ever tall, into the background. The nearest peak is dense and lush, with groves of evergreens visible on its surface. Setzer shows distance by abstracting the scene. First, she creates a boldly lined mountain in a patchwork of hues, then progresses into grey white simplified peaks filling the background. Fields of sunlight lead the eye from the middle foreground and upward to the right, scaling the terrain. Without roads or figures, a small red-roofed structure and the viewer’s vantage point are the only indicators that this wooded area is accessible to humans at all. October, 2020
Exhibition HistoryIowa Artists Exhibition, James D. Edmundson Purchase Award
DimensionsSheet: 19 3/8 × 23 1/4 in. (49.2 × 59.1 cm)
Accession Number 1954.16
Classificationswork on paper
InscriptionsB.V. Setzer (l/r)
Mountain Wood
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
William T. Richards
1885
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Elizabeth Miller
1957
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Truby Kelly Kirsch
1947
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Charles Demuth
ca. 1912
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Karl Mattern
1959
Photo Credit: RIch Sanders, Des Moines
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
ca. 1919-1920
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Ernest Lawson
date unknown
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Boardman Robinson
date unknown
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Dwight Kirsch
1959
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
George Grosz
1933
Photo Credit: Rich Sanders, Des Moines
Ralston Crawford
1936