File:Pamela Helena Wilson OldManRiver 2007.jpeg

Watercolor painting by Pamela Helena Wilson, Old Man River (watercolor on paper, 28" x 60", 2007). The image illustrates a major body of work in Pamela Helena Wilson's career beginning in 1999, when she produced diffuse watercolor paintings derived from news photos of catastrophic events. This work demonstrates some of her key themes and methods: conceptual interplay between the fragility of the watercolor medium and the charged nature of her subject matter; striking uses of light and dark, broad washes of color, and white space; and a linking of the ephemerality of newspaper images to that of watercolor paint. These paintings were publicly exhibited in prominent venues, discussed in major art journals and daily press publications, and acquired by museums.

Artist Pamela Helena Wilson. Copyright held by the artist.

Pamela Helena Wilson

Entire artwork

Yes. The image will not affect the commercial value of the original work or limit the copyright holder's rights or ability to distribute the original due to its low resolution and the general workings of the art market, which values the actual work of art. Because of the low resolution, illegal copies could not be made.

The image has contextual significance serving an informational and educational purpose as the primary means of illustrating a key body of work in Pamela Helena Wilson's later career: her watercolor paintings from 1999 into the 2020s derived from journalistic sources, which often depicted scenes of natural and human-made calamity, conflict, and teeming crowds. Her diffuse technique and active editing confound and obscure events, translating the original images into suggestive, new visual experiences with heightened urgency, universality and an open-endedness that plays against expectations for such sources. Because the article is about an artist and her work, the omission of the image would significantly limit a reader's understanding and ability to understand this key body of work and medium, which brought Wilson wide recognition through exhibitions in major venues, coverage by major critics and publications. Wilson's work of this type and this series, as well as this specific work, are discussed in the article and by critics cited in the article.

There is no free equivalent of this or any other of this series by Pamela Helena Wilson, so the image cannot be replaced by a free image.

The image will not affect the value of the original work or limit the copyright holder's rights or ability to distribute the original due to its low resolution and the general workings of the art market, which values the actual work of art. Because of the low resolution, illegal copies could not be made.