Work in Progress: Dorothea Rockburne’s Homage to Colin Powell

May 18 &ndash September 16, 2009

Dorothea Rockburne

On June 9, 2009, Montreal-born American artist Dorothea Rockburne began work on a 40-foot mural in the Queens Museum’s Large Triangle Gallery. Destined for the U.S. Embassy in Kingston, Jamaica, this new work was commissioned by the Foundation for Art and Preservation in Embassies (FAPE) and honors General Colin Powell, whose parents were from Jamaica. Titled Homage to Colin Powell, the mural depicts the sky over Jamaica on the night he was born. Rockburne, in partnership with Evergreene Architectural Arts, Inc., will execute the mural between June and August 2009. Following its completion, Homage will be on display at the Queens Museum until early September, and shipped to Jamaica and installed in the atrium of the embassy later this year. This marks the first time a FAPE project has been created in public view.

Dorothea Rockburne is a leading American abstract artist. Born in 1932, Rockburne draws inspiration primarily from a deep interest in mathematics and astronomy. Since the late 1960s, she has aligned herself with the classical tradition, exploring geometry, equilibrium, and proportional relationships while using materials like cardboard and crude oil and, more recently, gold leaf and pure pigment. Through deliberate choices of color and composition, Rockburne brings together the human desire for transcendence and the mathematical structures that underlie all of nature. Her work has been seen in one-person exhibitions at numerous galleries and in museum collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Museum of Modern Art in New York.

The Dorothea Rockburne Reading Room, located in the same gallery, is the latest in a series of reading rooms developed as part of QMA’s collaboration with the Queens Library. The Reading Room provides reference materials on subjects that inform the mural and how they relate to each other and to Queens residents. Some of the subjects included are astronomy, mural-making, and Colin Powell. The Reading Room also features a short documentary on the project by Ed Howard of the Checkerboard Film Foundation.

For the past 30 years, the third largest foreign-born population in New York City has been from Jamaica. Almost a fourth of the total Jamaican community lives in Queens, making the Queens Museum of Art a fitting location for the execution, interpretation, and unveiling of Rockburne’s artwork. This is a unique opportunity both to learn about how one artist works and to delve into the immigrant heritage of a widely admired American.

The Foundation for Art and Preservation in Embassies (FAPE) is the leading non-profit organization dedicated to enhancing the United States’ image abroad through American art. Founded as a public-private, non-partisan partnership in 1986, FAPE works with the U.S. Department of State to exhibit fine art in U.S. embassies around the world. FAPE’s donations include works by more than 145 preeminent American artists placed in over 70 countries.

Press Contact: David Strauss(718) 592-9700, ext. 145, dstrauss@queensmuseum.org