The portal

Richard Pousette-Dart (1916-1992), one of the towering figures of twentieth century American art, is best known as an Abstract Expressionist whose powerful paintings were shaped by the physical and spiritual chaos of World War II.

Pousette-Dart's lifelong devotion to modern mixes of the sacred and traditional lies behind the great portal, Cathedral, which is set in the blank, unadorned facade of the new Mary Fendrich Hulman Pavilion of the Indianapolis Museum of Art. This bronze door is taken from his painting, Cathedral, of 1978-80. It is a perfectly square, black-and-white painting, consisting of a white field on which shapes, geometrical figures, and other forms and symbols are outlined and drawn.

It is easy to see how the door is a realization of his work. Through Steven Polcari's in-depth analysis of Pousette-Dart and the Portal, the reader discovers the place both hold in the history of modernism. And through David Finn's detailed photographs, the viewer can easily follow the transition that took place from the artist's thickly pigmented paintings to the sculptural forms of the door, composed of polished bronze plateaus projecting from deeply carved inner valleys.