Proposition 1967, 1969

Allan D’Arcangelo’s edition Proposition 1967 (1969) reduces the American landscape to a striking geometric composition. A large white field is crossed by four fine lines that converge towards a small central rectangle, while vivid blue and green planes frame the image. The distant landscape visible within the central opening creates the illusion of depth, contrasting with the otherwise flat, precisely structured composition. 
The work reflects D’Arcangelo’s characteristic engagement with highways, road signs and the visual structures of the American landscape. By reducing these familiar elements to simple geometric forms, he transforms the road and its surrounding environment into an abstract system of perspective, movement and signs. The tension between the expansive white space and the tiny central landscape gives the work a distinctly cinematic quality, as if the viewer were looking through a windshield towards a distant horizon. Proposition 1967 is in the collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.