Allyson Strafella

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Allyson Strafella
1969-
Untitled
1995
Typewriter ink on paper.
11 x 8 1/2 inches (28 x 21.6 cm)
Gift of Martina Schaap Yamin.
2022.22
Notes: 

Strafella began using a typewriter as a way to record her thoughts and ideas, but she quickly realized its potential as a drawing medium. She has written, "The more I typed the more the letters and words on the pages began to take on a new function, slowly transforming into a new language ... made from patterns and grids I formed by punctuation marks." Strafella eventually created a custom typewriter comprising twenty-nine unique metal stamps. This drawing dates from the early years of her experiments with typewriter on standard letter-size paper and underscores the myriad latent formal possibilities that she uncovered in her mechanical medium.

Inscription: 

Signed and dated on verso in graphite, lower left: Allyson Strafella 4/95

Provenance: 
The artist; Martina Schaap Yamin, New York; from whom acquired by the Morgan
Century: 
Classification: