WHEN FIRE IS APPLIED TO A STONE IT CRACKS
About this Brooklyn Icon
The Brooklyn Museum is commemorating its 200th anniversary by spotlighting 200 standout objects in its encyclopedic collection.
Jeffrey Gibson’s brightly colored, geometric painting When Fire Is Applied to a Stone It Cracks is an example of how the artist blends traditional Indigenous materials and techniques with contemporary media—in this case, intricate beading, leatherwork, and sewing combined with acrylic on canvas. This synthesis of historical and present-day materials and styles sparks lively visual and conceptual conversations, both about the ongoing resilience of Indigenous communities and artistic practices and about the legacy of global trade and consumption over centuries. The title of the work, which is visually embedded—almost hidden—in the painting’s psychedelic grid, is also the title of Gibson’s 2020 Brooklyn Museum exhibition. It provides a key to understanding Gibson’s work: fire is the intensity and appreciation the artist brings to his materials; when that “fire” is applied to the underlying cultures that used those materials, it reveals—or “cracks open”—the ignored histories layered within, just as intense heat will crack stone.
Object Label
This text-based painting both celebrates and asserts the contemporary presence of Native life and culture. Jeffrey Gibson combines geometric beadwork designs with a colorful, psychedelic palette; the blocky letters spell out the work’s title, an unattributed Irish proverb that evokes convergence and transformation. Drawing upon Native traditions, queer histories, and the legacies of modernist painting, Gibson offers a personal vision of Indigenous reclamation and joy.
Caption
Jeffrey Gibson Mississippi Choctaw–Cherokee, born 1972. WHEN FIRE IS APPLIED TO A STONE IT CRACKS, 2019. Acrylic on canvas, glass beads, and artificial sinew, 78 × 78 in. (198.1 × 198.1 cm). Brooklyn Museum, William K. Jacobs, Jr. Fund, 2020.20. © artist or artist's estate
Tags
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Artist
Title
WHEN FIRE IS APPLIED TO A STONE IT CRACKS
Date
2019
Medium
Acrylic on canvas, glass beads, and artificial sinew
Classification
Dimensions
78 × 78 in. (198.1 × 198.1 cm)
Credit Line
William K. Jacobs, Jr. Fund
Accession Number
2020.20
Rights
© artist or artist's estate
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