Houses: Dots, Hatches

Jennifer Bartlett, Houses: Dots, Hatches, 1999, screenprint on paper, sheet: 38 ¹⁄₄ x 38 ¹⁄₄ in. (97.2 x 97.2 cm) image: 30 ¹⁄₄ x 30 ¹⁄₄ in. (76.8 x 76.8 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Smithsonian Associates, 2000.16

Artwork Details

Title: Houses: Dots, Hatches
Artist: Jennifer Bartlett
Printers: Brand X Editions
Agustin Rijo
Milton Ramon
Jose Crespo
Publisher: Smithsonian Associates
Date: 1999
Location: Not on view
Dimensions: sheet: 38 ¹⁄₄ x 38 ¹⁄₄ in. (97.2 x 97.2 cm) image: 30 ¹⁄₄ x 30 ¹⁄₄ in. (76.8 x 76.8 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of the Smithsonian Associates
Mediums Description: screenprint on paper
Classifications: Graphic Arts
Print
Subjects: Architecture Exterior — domestic — house
Abstract
Object Number: 2000.16
Linked Open Data: https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/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.