Clay Ketter: 4 Composition No. 2 1994

A wall on the wall?

4 Composition No. 2 is part of Clay Ketter’s Wall Paintings series, which marked the artist’s breakthrough during the 1990s. In this body of work, Ketter experiments with materials not traditionally associated with fine art, such as gypsum, wallboard, and spackle. The works exist between painting, sculpture, craftsmanship, and architecture, blurring the boundaries between these fields.

Familiar construction materials are transformed into abstract compositions that invite reflection on how artworks are made and what a painting can consist of. By exposing structures and surfaces that are normally hidden, Ketter creates a transparent visual language focused on construction and deconstruction.

The work can also be connected to artistic movements such as Cubism, Constructivism, Suprematism, Minimalism, and the tradition of readymades. References to artists such as Frank Stella and Robert Rauschenberg can also be seen in the series.

Later in his career, Ketter increasingly explored existential themes related to human life, nature, and architecture. An example is Pirate Lane (2007), part of the photographic series Gulf Coast Slabs, which documents the foundations of homes destroyed by Hurricane Katrina on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

Although separated by nearly 20 years, 4 Composition No. 2 and Pirate Lane both reflect Ketter’s continuing interest in construction, destruction, and the traces of human presence.

4 Composition No. 2 was donated to SSE by alumnus Lars Bane.

Clay Ketter was born in 1961 in Brunswick, Maine. Since the late 1980s, he has lived and worked in Sweden, and his work has been exhibited internationally in museums, galleries, and art institutions. In 2009, he had a major solo exhibition at Moderna Museet in Stockholm.

His works are included in collections such as Moderna Museet, Malmö Konstmuseum, Gothenburg Museum of Art, Skissernas Museum in Lund, Astrup Fearnley Museet in Oslo, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark, the Saatchi Collection in London, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, the Brooklyn Museum, the Pérez Art Museum Miami, and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis.

Photos: Mikael Olsson

Reflection by Pierre Guillet de Monthoux

4 Composition No. 2 evokes associations with carpentry, masonry, and architecture. The work can be interpreted as a reflection on functionalism, construction, and the aesthetics of industrial materials. By exposing surfaces and structures normally concealed in architecture and interior design, Ketter draws attention to systems of production and the visual language of modernity.

Art critic and philosopher Arthur Danto described this type of artistic transformation as the “transfiguration of the commonplace,” where ordinary materials and objects acquire new meaning through artistic context.