scalloped ˈskä-ləp, ˈska-, adjective
: having a margin made up of circular or rounded shapes
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The word scalloped has appeared in 21 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year, including on March 12 in “‘Agnes of the Desert’ Joins Modernism’s Pantheon” by Roberta Smith:
… This career-spanning survey of 45 paintings presents the underappreciated but inimitable art of the American painter Agnes Pelton (1881-1961) and offers a reminder that the history of modernist abstraction and women’s contribution to it is still being written.
… The artist my mind defaults to is Walt Disney, in particular the Disney of “Fantasia,” which was in the works by the late 1930s. By then Pelton had been firmly in control of her arsenal of stars, vessels and horizons for several years. Implicit in many of Pelton’s best works is a Disneyesque sense of magical, inherently musical animation, subtly comedic wit and even jubilation. Consider the motion — and speeds — visible in “Orbits” (1934) where seven stars zip about, each on its own pastel lariat, while a black vessel-like shape swells majestically behind them, rising over a low triangle of mountain, on what can only be described as a rippling magic carpet. The vessel culminates in curved lavender shapes that create a turban effect and a scalloped cloud that conjures a doily. This is a lot of activity for a not-very-large painting, yet we experience the details individually as they coalesce in the dawning sky. The tension of unity in formation is the template of Pelton’s best work.
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