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Progress of Beauty 1

Mark Kostabi

Artwork Details

Progress of Beauty 1
1988
Mark Kostabi
ink on paper
12 1/16 x 9 1/16 in. (30.5 x 23 cm)
The Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection: Fifty Works for Fifty States, a joint initiative of the Trustees of the Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection and the Nation Gallery of Art, with generous support from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Institute for Museum and Library Services
2008/2.241

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Description

Mark Kostabi
United States, born 1960
Progress of Beauty 1
1988
Ink on paper
2008/2.241

Subject Matter:

Based on the painting by Dutch master Johannes Vermeer, Young Woman with a Water Pitcher (1662) in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. In this work, Vermeer’s painting has been rendered in linear form: stained glass window, wall, shadow thrown by window, the woman’s head and shoulder covering and bodice, tablecloth, basin and pitcher, the map on the wall behind her; the jewelry box has been changed to a cash register.
Kostabi describes himself as a “corporate artist” who makes “business art”—work in which market mechanisms, commodification and commercialization are not separated from the traditional realms of aesthetics and creativity. The woman with pitcher is rendered as the “everyman” figure in his paintings—smooth, featureless, tonally modeled form.

Physical Description:

Line drawing in felt tip marker on ivory ~ 10x13” paper.

Usage Rights:

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