Held Impermanence Notecards

In the Museum’s largest six galleries, Katherine Simóne Reynolds illuminates competing desires held in constant tension at the Clyfford Still Museum. The collection reflects Still’s ambitious attempt to keep his collection intact, a commitment that allows us to see his works alongside paintings made in painful transitions, and others that bear the scars of time. Held Impermanence asks visitors to consider healing and rest over time; how we respond to this collection with our bodies; and to contend with his and our mortality—and, with it, a shared desire to hold impermanence.

The two notecards: 

A note card with a photograph of the exterior view of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York in 1979. Blank inside. Quote on the back: “Why do I want something permanent? Only the gallery is permanent. The pictures come and go like trash through the streets. After a while the pictures are junked.” –Clyfford Still diary note, January 23rd, 1975. On view in gallery 9.

This photograph documents the massive banner that hung outside of The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York that hosted Clyfford Still’s long-awaited 1979 retrospective. The exhibition featured over 80 paintings, constituting the largest exhibition of his work to date. The exhibition was precarious; Still threatened to cancel in multiple letters over years between different curators and collectors. He pushed through his own uncertainty and fear and mounted what became his swan song; Still would pass away five months later. The blood-red banner becomes a totem, catching and releasing in the wind.

A note card with painting PH-133, 1960 (palette knife- and brush-applied oil paint on canvas) on view in gallery 5. Still's vision for his collection was so unparalleled to any other artist's wish at the end of his life.