Object Details
- Luce Center Label
- Cleo Hartwig based Fern on the plant she remembered from her childhood in rural Michigan. In this piece she retained the texture and weightiness of the hard stone and stylized the individual fern fronds in order to express the plant’s formal beauty. Yet despite Fern’s abstracted appearance, the curled fronds suggest balled-up energy and the potential for growth. Indeed, the trio of leaves resembles a family group, in which the two taller “adult” fronds watch protectively over their “child.”
- Data Source
- Smithsonian American Art Museum
- Artist
- Cleo Hartwig, born Webberville, MI 1911-died New York City 1988
- Date
- 1981
- Credit Line
- Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Albert Glinsky
- Medium
- stone
- Dimensions
- 15 3/4 x 8 3/4 x 6 1/4 in. (40.0 x 22.2 x 15.9 cm.)
- Type
- Sculpture
