Folded Wings – Memory – & the Moon Weeping

Media - 1969.78 - SAAM-1969.78_1 - 52045
Copied Morris Graves, Folded Wings--Memory--& the Moon Weeping, ca. 1942-1943, ink wash and gouache on paper, sheet: 29 3⁄8 x 23 3⁄4 in. (74.6 x 60.3 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Michael and Caryl Marsh, 1969.78

Artwork Details

Title
Folded Wings – Memory – & the Moon Weeping
Artist
Date
ca. 1942-1943
Location
Not on view
Dimensions
sheet: 29 3⁄8 x 23 3⁄4 in. (74.6 x 60.3 cm)
Credit Line
Gift of Michael and Caryl Marsh
Mediums
Mediums Description
ink wash and gouache on paper
Classifications
Keywords
  • Animal — other — skeleton
  • State of being — emotion — sorrow
  • Animal — bird
  • Allegory — other — memory
  • Landscape — celestial — moon
Object Number
1969.78
Linked Open Data
https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/1969.78

Artwork Description

As a master of contemplative, spiritual expression, Graves used natural forms to symbolize his state of mind and inner vision. The bird with folded wings seems to emerge from his transcendent imagination, the artist’s “inner eye,” rather than from direct observation. The transparent, abstract image suggests an engraving in the face of a rock, worn away by time and weather, at once fading and accumulating new meaning.

Graphic Masters II: Highlights from the Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2009