Born in California, the American painter Marcia Hafif spent eight years living in Rome (1961-1969), during which time she made her "Italian paintings." Describing her work as "Pop-Minimal," Hafif limited her compositions to two or three colors in simple relationships that are suggestive of landscapes, bodies, or both. In 161. (1967), a red mound reminiscent of a hill symmetrically fills the painting's bottom margin, intersecting with a bright green field above. The form has various art historical and cultural associations for Hafif: "I was first attracted to the shape when I bought a small sculpture of Ken Price's in Los Angeles in 1961. Later and other versions I have been drawn to… have been certain sculptures by Jene Highstein, a Hill [Censer] at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Billy Kluver's compost heap, [and] the Temple of the Magician at Uxmal[, Mexico]."[1]