The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 16, 2025

Five Color Frame

1985

Robert Mangold

(American, 1937-)
published by

Crown Point Press

America
woodcut
John L. Severance Fund 1990.78
© Robert Mangold / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Location: Not on view

Description

Relying upon an abstract, geometry-based style, Mangold uses only a few elements-lines and fields of color-to achieve a rigorous order he then subverts. His work arouses and then confounds expectations. For instance, in Five Color Frame, the black line should form a perfect oval but does not. It is pulled, pushed, and carefully deformed by the colored rectangles through which it passes. This tension enlivens the work, but in the end, the colors, lines, and shapes are resolved into a satisfying balance.
  • Turner, Evan H. “Acquisitions: 1990.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 78, no. 2 (February 1991): 30–45. Reproduced: p. 39, no. 51 www.jstor.org
  • Less is More: Minimal Prints. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 16-October 20, 2013).
    Against the Grain: Woodcuts from the Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 17-November 9, 2003).
  • {{cite web|title=Five Color Frame|url=false|author=Robert Mangold, Crown Point Press|year=1985|access-date=16 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1990.78