Houses: Dots, Hatches

Media - 2000.16 - SAAM-2000.16_1 - 123599
Copied Jennifer Bartlett, Houses: Dots, Hatches, 1999, screenprint on paper, sheet: 38 1438 14 in. (97.297.2 cm) image: 30 1430 14 in. (76.876.8 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Smithsonian Associates, 2000.16

Artwork Details

Title
Houses: Dots, Hatches
Printers
Brand X Editions
Publisher
Smithsonian Associates
Date
1999
Location
Not on view
Dimensions
sheet: 38 1438 14 in. (97.297.2 cm) image: 30 1430 14 in. (76.876.8 cm)
Credit Line
Gift of the Smithsonian Associates
Mediums Description
screenprint on paper
Classifications
Keywords
  • Abstract
  • Architecture Exterior — domestic — house
Object Number
2000.16

Artwork Description

Since 1970 Jennifer Bartlett has reworked this iconic emblem of a "house"--a triangle atop a rectangle--to explore how rules and systems govern our lives. Printed in twenty-three colors, this screenprint builds her simple design with a blanket of evenly spaced circles, disrupted by haphazardly arranged trios of hatch marks. Close inspection reveals that each dot is unique in shape and character, further destabilizing the picture's tight, organizing grid. The generic house crumbles into a field of individual human gestures and actions, suggesting that both the creation and the breaking of rules are powerful forms of self-expression.