The Other Room, from the Shut-In Suite
Date: 1969
Medium: Lithograph on Copperplate Deluxe paper
Dimensions: 29 1/4 x 21 1/2 inches
Edition: 20
Related Information
Printer:
Eugene Sturman
Publisher:
Tamarind Lithography Workshop, Los Angeles, CA
Collection:
Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Museum Purchase with County Funds
Museum of Modern Art, New York; Gift of Kleiner, Bell & Co.
Portland Art Museum; A Gift from Marguerite Kirk Harris from her collection of Paul Harris Art, 2023.27.1m
University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive; Gift of Christopher Harris and Nicholas Harris
Exhibitions:
Montana Gallery, Billings, MT, Paul Harris Art Collection, 2020
Paul Harris and Marguerite Kirk Gallery, Belgrade, MT, Paul Harris: Selected Lithographs and Bronzes, June 5–August 8, 2021
Medium Gallery, Bozeman, MT, Selected Lithographs & Bronzes by Paul Harris Art, 2022
Portland Art Museum, Paul Harris: Shut-In Suite, 1969–1970, November 20, 2025–June 7, 2026
Remarks:
“The artist turns this glimpse of a windowsill and lampshade into an abstract study of geometric forms. Although simple in composition, The Other Room required nine colors, printed in six successive runs through the press. It was the first lithograph in this series.”
—Mary Weaver Chapin, PhD, Senior Curator of Prints & Drawings at the Portland Art Museum
Chronology Excerpt:
“Receives a ninety-day Tamarind Institute of Lithography fellowship in Los Angeles, California, and, under the supervision of Master Printer Serge Lozingot, completes The Shut-In Suite, twenty-one lithographs in black tusche and crayon. In a 1976 interview with Los Angeles County Museum of Art curator Maurice Tuchman for the Archives of American Art on the occasion of Richard Diebenkorn, Harris says of the residency, ‘When I was working at Tamarind, I invited Dick to come there . . . I had been there a couple of months, three months, and I was about out of my head . . . I had a fight with the proprietor [June Wayne] . . . I took off . . . I couldn’t stand it anymore . . . I arrive back at the last day . . . and Dick came out, to say, “well everyone is waiting for you.” But he was very shy and was trying to tell me that inside there was a lot of tension when I would arrive . . . And it was the kind of thing that he hopes won’t happen, but it was also kind of exciting to them . . . when things don't go smoothly. When people have shown their sharp edges. . . .’
“In November, an exhibition of the material opens. The promotional text reads, ‘A shut-in’s intimate reflections on his environment. Harris’ [sic] crisp images appear as still lifes seen through a zoom lens: the views are cropped and flattened . . . The combination of flat patterns and implied dimension causes each work to shift between an abstract and a representational identity. This quality is strong in “Lawn Party” where the image is flat grassy green topped by broad green and white stripes suggesting the corner of an awning. In another, “Rain” (printed on yellow vinyl) red and blue floral wallpaper delineates a hanging raincoat.’”