#stephengreene

[harvard-art-museums-drawings]

Self-Portrait, Stephen Greene, 1950, Harvard Art Museums: Drawings

Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Gift of John S. Newberry, Jr. © Estate of Stephen Greene Size: actual: 38.4 x 25.5 cm (15 1/8 x 10 1/16 in.) Medium: Graphite and wax crayon on glossy wove paper

https://www.harvardartmuseums.org/collections/object/308310

[harvard-art-museums-drawings]

Lilies, Stephen Greene, 20th century, Harvard Art Museums: Drawings

Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Bequest of Meta and Paul J. Sachs © Estate of Stephen Greene Size: actual: 44.7 x 31.8 cm (17 5/8 x 12 1/2 in.) Medium: Graphite and wax crayon on glossy wove paper

https://www.harvardartmuseums.org/collections/object/308754

[harvard-art-museums-drawings]

Two Boys, Stephen Greene, 20th century, Harvard Art Museums: Drawings

Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Bequest of Meta and Paul J. Sachs © Estate of Stephen Greene Size: actual: 27.1 x 20 cm (10 11/16 x 7 7/8 in.) Medium: Brown ink on white wove paper

https://www.harvardartmuseums.org/collections/object/308828

[bm-contemporary-art]

Lovers, Stephen Greene, 1964, Brooklyn Museum: Contemporary Art

© Estate of Stephen Greene Size: frame: 22 3/4 x 22 3/4 in. (57.8 x 57.8 cm) Medium: Oil on canvas

https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/96365

[bloombergarts]

Image Courtesy of The Whitney

Stephen Greene, The Shadow

The Shadow sticks out like a sore thumb in a room filled with many photographs at the Whitney Museum of American Art. The artist, Stephen Greene, is an American abstract artist who mainly focused on pictures of the everyday person amalgamated with abstract expressionism. His work is so abstract that a picture of The Shadow cannot even be found online. For a short while, I almost believed that I had merely imagined the painting into existence.

In a shadowy room leans a skeleton against a wall. The skeleton has no arms, and an unattached leg rests on the wall, possibly ripped off and thrown to the side. To me, this piece feels very melancholic because of the use of just black, white and grey. “Who is this skeleton and how did they get here?” are probably the first questions to enter your mind as you envision the work. That's what makes this skeleton so interesting. There are so many questions to ask, but so little answers to be found. It draws you in and leaves you more confused every time you see it. This gives you the opportunity to create your own story. The skeleton can be anyone or anything you want it to be. A man thrown into a basement and left to starve, who tore off their own arm in a fit of insanity after being left down in the damp and dark for so long. A pirate who was trapped with his loot. A victim of torture who was crudely hidden away from the world.

That is the true beauty of this piece, there is no right or wrong answer. This skeleton is everyone and everything, but no one at all.

Monifa Charles-Osubu