Purple Mekle Lippis

Jules Olitski

1961 · Acrylic on canvas · Modern and Contemporary Art

In 1959, Olitski began staining canvas in the manner of Morris Louis and Kenneth Noland. Clement Greenberg included Olitski among the artists he grouped together under the rubric “post-painterly abstraction.” Mekle Lippis is Old Scots for “huge lips,” taken from ribald verses by William Dunbar (ca. 1450–ca. 1520).

Artist

Jules Olitski

Date

1961

Medium

Acrylic on canvas

Department

Modern and Contemporary Art

Credit line

The Muriel Kallis Steinberg Newman Collection, Gift of Muriel Kallis Newman, 2006