Moon

A glowing pale sphere sits enclosed within dark, rounded shapes set against a black and gray backdrop, as if light itself were cradled by shadow. The oil painting, titled Moon, was made in 1928 by Arthur Garfield Dove and is held at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. The piece comes from the Alfred Stieglitz Collection, shared between Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee and Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas. Dove worked as an American painter whose art moved toward abstraction. Looking closely, the contrast between the smooth glow of the sphere and the layered curves surrounding it draws the eye toward the center, where brightness seems to push outward against the enveloping darkness.