Label Text
British painter Keith Coventry explores art history -- particularly abstraction -- and contemporary social issues in his work. From his series of "History" paintings, this work features minimal compositions that symbolize battle victories from wildly different time and situations. One commenorates a fight from Ancient Greek history, while the other mentions a brawl between English soccer fans. This is the second painting by Coventry to enter the collections.
Source: Bulletin (News) Jan Feb Mar 2020
DimensionsFrame (each): 39 1/4 × 27 1/4 × 2 1/4 in. (99.7 × 69.2 × 5.7 cm)
Accession Number 2019.27.a-.b
Classificationspainting
CopyrightDACS
InscriptionsThe Sparttan Anaxibios and twelve others fought against the entire Athenian forces in 389 B.C. (placque on frame a); Seven arsenal fans fought and defeated more than twenty west ham fans in May 1982 (placque on frame b)
ProvenanceArtist. (Curt Marcus Gallery, New York); Paul and Anastasia Polydoran, Des Moines [acquired from the previous]; Des Moines Art Center [gift of the previous, 2019]