Artist Cianne Fragione (American, b. 1952)

Summer Madness: Abundant Access / Wild plants

Date2022-2023

MediumOil base paint, collage fragments of torn former works, and graphite on paper

Dimensions30 x 22 in. (76.2 x 55.9 cm)

Credit LineDC Commission on the Arts and Humanities Art Bank Collection

Object numberDCCAH2025.013

ClassificationsPaintings

Locations

Currently Not on View

DescriptionAbundant Access/ Wild plants is a part of Fragione’s Summer Madness Series. This body of work responds to two collections of short poems by Eugenio Montale: Mediterraneo and Ossi di Seppia. Using found objects and mixed medium materials, Fragione documents time’s impact on ordinary objects, with each work becoming a “dense synthesis of influences and personal perspectives.” Paint moves across the surface of the work like choreography, an active gesture which Fragione brings with her from her early training as a professional ballet dancer. In this way, Fragione uses the common dance language of the “warm up” to describe her approach to using Montale’s poetry as inspiration for this series: “Over many years of studio practice, the warmups have become useful transformations of words, images, and page design, made directly on the pages of books. Books start as familiar objects that have a role in communicating and sharing information and, at the same time, developing the normative and systemized levels of language.”