Slide Out, 1980

A key figure in the pattern and decoration, or P&D, movement that began in the 1970s, Kim MacConnel purposefully sampled and cross-pollinated everyday kinds of ornamentation in his work, including Hawaiian shirts, tablecloths, chinoiserie décor, and Southeast Asian wall hangings. He thumbed his nose at Western art’s centuries-old tradition of valuing fine arts over decorative arts and proposed a new type of painting that embraced discredited ornamental patterns. Slide Out challenges our traditional ideas about painting in two significant ways. First, its uneven vertical strips of painted fabric are not tautly stretched to produce the customary rigid surface. Instead, the cloth is pinned directly to the wall, recalling curtains, quilts, banners, or laundry drying on a clothesline. Second, the boldly colored, clashing patterns—arabesques, a baseball player, and ice cream—bring to mind a range of nontraditional sources, from tiles and rugs to commercial illustrations.