Lorser Feitelson inspired box

This lacquer letter box was inspired by a striking Lorser Feitelson “Magical Space Form” painting done in the early 1940’s (it is brighter than it looks in this photo). In the 1980’s Slater created a series of small magical space form paintings (they can be seen at miriamslaterart.com) as well as this dark, rather moody box with an abstracted playing card forms. From the left to right it has a diamond, heart, spade and a club on the cover with pinched playing card designs on the side panel. The color scheme is based on Feitelson’s use of a limited palette consisting mostly of reds and greens as can be seen in his magical space form painting here. In the box, Slater only uses a similar red and green palette with a variety of tints, hues and chroma. Although Slater often used a playing card motif in her art from this period, this is the only painted object done in this style.