<I>Blue Feather</I>
date: label: Date
content: 2013
name: label: Created by
content: Gregory Coates, American, born 1961
notes: label: Caption
content: "My signature blue is spiritual. It is vibrant, yet subtle. It invites [you] to engage and derive personal meaning." - Gregory Coates
label: Caption
content: Gregory Coates’s inventive use of unorthodox materials allows him to create art that is visually and spiritually multidimensional. He began incorporating feathers in his work in 2007, after the death of his father-in-law. During the process of grieving, Coates was given a torn feather pillow from an art installation created by a friend. Instead of throwing it away, he chose to take it to his studio and incorporate the feathers into his art. The repetitive process of adhering individual feathers to the canvas allowed him to consider his own feelings of loss while simultaneously recognizing and celebrating the finality of death as an inevitable component of the cycle of life.
label: Description
content: A painting created of blue acrylic paint and cleaned goose feathers applied onto canvas. The large, rectangular canvas is completely covered in cobalt blue paint applied evenly over both the feathers and the canvas, creating an artwork that is monochromatic yet multidimensional in texture. Some of the feathers extend beyond the borders of the canvas. The artwork is unframed.
topic: label: Topic
content: African American
label: Topic
content: Abstraction
label: Topic
content: Art
setName: label: See more items in
content: National Museum of African American History and Culture Collection
label: Classification
content: Visual Arts
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Eric Collins in honor of Henry and Adeline Collins
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of African American History and Culture
identifier: label: Object number
content: 2013.202
objectType: label: Type
content: multimedia works
objectRights: label: Restrictions & Rights
content: © Gregory Coates
label: Restrictions & Rights
content: Permission required for use. Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.
physicalDescription: label: Medium
content: acrylic and goose feathers on canvas
label: Dimensions
content: H x W: 39 × 75 1/2 × 1 3/8 in. (99 × 191.7 × 3.5 cm)