The raw emotional power of Goodman’s work sets her apart from others of the Cass Corridor group. Her paintings from the early 1970s are characterized by cryptic images, particularly organic shapes suggestive of body parts. These recurring symbols, set in fantastic combinations, explore the anxiety of living in a threatening city as well as hinting at personal tragedy.
Artist Brenda Goodman, American, born 1943
Title
  • The Cat Approaches
Date 1974
Medium oil and pencil on canvas
Dimensions Unframed: 66 × 51 inches (167.6 × 129.5 cm)
Framed (slat frame): 66 1/2 × 51 1/2 inches (168.9 × 130.8 cm)
Credit Line Founders Society Purchase, Mr. and Mrs. Conrad H. Smith Memorial Fund and the Gertrude Kasle Gallery
Accession Number 74.183
Department Contemporary Art after 1950
Not On View
Signed Signed and dated, lower right: B. Goodman '74
1974-present, purchase by the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)
Bulletin of the DIA 54, 2 (1975): p. 114.

Arts and Crafts in Detroit. Exh. cat., Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1976, p. 232, no. 299 (ill.).

"Family Art Game." DIA Advertising Supplement. Detroit News/Detroit Free Press (April 18, 1982): p. 37 (ill.).

"Family Art Game." DIA Advertising Supplement. Detroit News (April 29, 1984): p. 17 (ill.).

Bulanda, George. "The Cat Approaches." Hour Detroit (April 2012): p. 33.