Trouble

Christopher Wool’s compositions explore the intersection between signage and language, pattern and decoration. His painting method involves the use of commercially produced stamps, screens, rollers, and stencils to ironically achieve “allover” surfaces. In 1987 he began making “word paintings,” canvases consisting of single words and phrases—often with irregular spacing and line breaks—in block letters with visible drips and other handmade imperfections. Trouble belongs to a series of paintings of pointedly four-letter words, such as fear, riot, and amok, in which Wool stacked the letters two by two. Here the vowels have been deleted, shortening trouble to optimize its graphic, visual impact. Wool’s paintings are typically black-and-white; this variation is thus unique within the artist’s practice.