Learning to Communicate2020Sheet: 24 x 18 " (61 x 45.7 cm)Spray paint on paperGift of Andrea Guttag2025.10.101677579321Lonnie HolleyPaintings© Artist Rights Society (ARS), New Yorkverso lower center: 'Learning To Communicate / 2020'lower right: 'Lonnie Holley / 2020'http://nodes.emuseum.com/BU1BGBAG/apis/emuseum/network/v1/vocabularies/termMaster27226http://nodes.emuseum.com/BU1BGBAG/apis/emuseum/network/v1/vocabularies/termMaster12320http://nodes.emuseum.com/BU1BGBAG/apis/emuseum/network/v1/vocabularies/termMaster12640http://nodes.emuseum.com/BU1BGBAG/apis/emuseum/network/v1/vocabularies/termMaster9504http://nodes.emuseum.com/BU1BGBAG/apis/emuseum/network/v1/vocabularies/termMaster9488East HamptonEast HamptonUnited StatesNew YorkWorks on PaperAmerican Folk Art MuseumEast HamptonLonnie Holley’s Learning to Communicate is part of a series of works created during his 2020 artist-in-residency at the Elaine de Kooning House in East Hampton, using spray paint and stencils. The renowned Southern artist later exhibited many of them at the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill, New York. Learning to Communicate hinges on the tension between abstraction and figuration, suggesting the rippling contours of human faces in silhouette. In a softly diffused palette of grays, pinks, yellows, and oranges, the ethereal quality of spray paint allows the different layers of color to interpenetrate one another, lending the disparate shapes a transformative, mystical aura. This compelling artwork will join six others—three sculptures and three paintings—by the artist in the Museum’s collection. This will be the first work on paper by the artist to enter AFAM’s collection. Over five weeks in residence at the Elaine de Kooning House, Holley created more than 100 works—from sculpture made of found objects from the property, to a large series of spray-paint-on-paper paintings. Similar in style, form, and palette to Learning to Communicate are works with titles like Seeing Through the Background, Looking for Answers in the Clouds, and The Influence of Images. Abstract vertical composition of faces in profile. Yellow, orange, pink, black spray paintObject information is a work in progress and may be updated
with new research. Records are reviewed and revised, and the American Folk Art
Museum welcomes additional information.
To help improve this record, please email photoservices@folkartmuseum.orghttp://nodes.emuseum.com/BU1BGBAG/apis/emuseum/network/v1/vocabularies/termMaster27226http://nodes.emuseum.com/BU1BGBAG/apis/emuseum/network/v1/vocabularies/termMaster12320http://nodes.emuseum.com/BU1BGBAG/apis/emuseum/network/v1/vocabularies/termMaster12640http://nodes.emuseum.com/BU1BGBAG/apis/emuseum/network/v1/vocabularies/termMaster9504http://nodes.emuseum.com/BU1BGBAG/apis/emuseum/network/v1/vocabularies/termMaster9488http://nodes.emuseum.com/BU1BGBAG/apis/emuseum/network/v1/vocabularies/termMaster27226http://nodes.emuseum.com/BU1BGBAG/apis/emuseum/network/v1/vocabularies/termMaster12320http://nodes.emuseum.com/BU1BGBAG/apis/emuseum/network/v1/vocabularies/termMaster12640http://nodes.emuseum.com/BU1BGBAG/apis/emuseum/network/v1/vocabularies/termMaster9504http://nodes.emuseum.com/BU1BGBAG/apis/emuseum/network/v1/vocabularies/termMaster9488http://nodes.emuseum.com/BU1BGBAG/apis/emuseum/network/v1/vocabularies/termMaster27226http://nodes.emuseum.com/BU1BGBAG/apis/emuseum/network/v1/vocabularies/termMaster12320http://nodes.emuseum.com/BU1BGBAG/apis/emuseum/network/v1/vocabularies/termMaster12640http://nodes.emuseum.com/BU1BGBAG/apis/emuseum/network/v1/vocabularies/termMaster9504http://nodes.emuseum.com/BU1BGBAG/apis/emuseum/network/v1/vocabularies/termMaster948820202020 2025 10 1 Lonnie Holley’s Learning to Communicate is part of a series of works created during his 2020 artist-in-residency at the Elaine de Kooning House in East Hampton, using spray paint and stencils. The renowned Southern artist later exhibited many of them at the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill, New York. Learning to Communicate hinges on the tension between abstraction and figuration, suggesting the rippling contours of human faces in silhouette. In a softly diffused palette of grays, pinks, yellows, and oranges, the ethereal quality of spray paint allows the different layers of color to interpenetrate one another, lending the disparate shapes a transformative, mystical aura. This compelling artwork will join six others—three sculptures and three paintings—by the artist in the Museum’s collection. This will be the first work on paper by the artist to enter AFAM’s collection. Over five weeks in residence at the Elaine de Kooning House, Holley created more than 100 works—from sculpture made of found objects from the property, to a large series of spray-paint-on-paper paintings. Similar in style, form, and palette to Learning to Communicate are works with titles like Seeing Through the Background, Looking for Answers in the Clouds, and The Influence of Images. Abstract vertical composition of faces in profile. Yellow, orange, pink, black spray paintObject information is a work in progress and may be updated
with new research. Records are reviewed and revised, and the American Folk Art
Museum welcomes additional information.
To help improve this record, please email photoservices@folkartmuseum.org