THE NEW BRITAIN MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART
Lilly Martin Spencer This Little Pig Went to Market, 1857
George Tooker 
Bird Watchers, 1948
George Clair Tooker, Jr. was born August 5, 1920. He father was Anglo/French-American and his mother was English/Spanish-Cuban, they lived in Brooklyn then later moved to Long Island. He had a proper upper class background, he became a figure painter whose work reflects both his advantaged status and understanding of those less comfortable. The people he drew with sexual and racial appearance are regularly covered by weighty clothing and appear drooping and loose fitting, trapped within their own boring worlds. He attended art school first then went on to Harvard University majoring in English Literature. Majority of his time went to his art work. He graduated from college in 1942, joined the the Marine Corps , and was discharged because he was extremely ill.
In 1943 at the Art Students League Of New York is when he began his studing. Kenneth Hayes Miller were two of his teachers at the ASL. He was compared with other painters such as Andrew Wyeth and Edward Hopper other famous artist. Although he was raised in a religious (Episcopalian) family he later converted to Catholicism. He is a member of The American Academy of Art and Letters and he lives in Vermont.
Although he was raised in a religious family, Tooker stopped attending church when he began art school. Nevertheless, the religious art of the past affected him deeply and has remained a major influence throughout his career. Speaking of Bird Watchers, he explained: "I wanted to paint a positive picture, a religious picture without religious subject matter. I thought watching birds was a good subject which could get close to a religious picture, but I was not yet ready to make a painting with a religious subject."
Based on Quattro cento Italian prototypes, Bird Watchers suggests the Crucifixion, with the figures of Mary, Mary Magdalene, and the apostles and soldiers at the foot of the cross, which is represented by the tree to the right. The panel itself, with its arched top, refers to Renaissance altarpieces. The painting was thought in Manhattan's Central Park. Although the figures are clearly from the late 1940s, Tooker detached all excessive detail from their clothing in order to suggest a more everlasting simplicity. “Critics noticed the topcoat of the main figure has no buttons or buttonholes and becomes a loose robe of indeterminate style. The figures are monumental and stiffly posed, the composition stable and static, the faces, modeled for the most part on Tooker himself, his friends, and his family, standardized and repetitious. The use of primary colors enhances the painting's calmness and stability while also evoking Italian paintings”.
Some critics have described his style as "magic realism," but he was not interested in the false effects that many of the painters of that style espouse. He has regarded himself as more of a reporter or observer of society than an interpreter. It was also said, “He is considered to be of Magic Realism’s most prominent visual artists. "Magic Realism" is a rather vaguely defined movement. German critic Franz Roh to describe the dreamlike symbolic art of De Chirico and his Italian cohorts coined the name in 1923. (1) The term was made popular in this country by the Museum of Modern Art's 1943 exhibition "American Realists and Magic Realists," which distinguished the fantastic imagery of painters such as Paul Cadmus and Ivan Albright from the more conventional realism of Edward Hopper and Charles Sheeler. Despite the suggestion of the Chazen exhibition's title, these Midwest artists never defined themselves as being part of any movement. Salvador Dali's New York debut in the early 1930s seemed to have opened the doors for American artists across the country to develop their own styles of fantasy-tinged surrealism. (2)
Working within the then-revitalized tradition of egg tempera, His work addressed affecting issues of modern-day alienation with subtly eerie and often visually literal depictions of social withdrawal and isolation. Subway and Government Bureau are two of his best-known paintings. The word "tempera" derives from the medieval Latin temperate; meaning blending or mixing. Today, the word indicates a medium bound with emulsions, combined with dry pigments and water. The exhibition considers techniques using both egg yolk (egg tempera) and milk proteins as principal emulsions. Mesmerized by geometric design and symmetry, he works slowly, completely about two paintings a year because he spends much time searching for the underlying idea.
This work of art captured my eye because I was interested in knowing what the people were looking at. The day appeared to be a Sunday afternoon after church. The people are fascinated about the site they witness in the tree. Their clothing was very plain but colorful. The man in front in the light color trench coat had a “wow” look on his face with his hands tilt in the upward position. The individual standing on the bridge was also focused on what was going on in the tree.
George Tooker used egg tempera. The artist established and old dreary time period through color and composition. The function it serves is to display “Magic Realism” a time period when the symbolism the work contained were ordinary people and their expressions.
The message I interrupted was people trying to figure out what type of bird was in the tree. The worker exhibited facial expression. The message communicated in these painting suggests the Crucifixion. The cultural, political, economic, social or religious influence on the life of the artist and the community in which he/she worked was to show magic in his artwork. The style of the work reflects the time or culture in which it is made was Renaissance altarpieces. The composition appears to show Europeans rear the river.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Tooker -
www.rogallery.com/tooker_george/tooker-biography.htm -
Thomas H. Garver, George Tooker (New York: Clarkson N. Potter, 1985)
Greta Berman and Jeffrey Wechsler, Realism and Realities: The Other Side of American Painting, 1940-1960 (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Art Gallery, 1982)
Bird Watchers, 1948
George Clair Tooker, Jr. was born August 5, 1920. He father was Anglo/French-American and his mother was English/Spanish-Cuban, they lived in Brooklyn then later moved to Long Island. He had a proper upper class background, he became a figure painter whose work reflects both his advantaged status and understanding of those less comfortable. The people he drew with sexual and racial appearance are regularly covered by weighty clothing and appear drooping and loose fitting, trapped within their own boring worlds. He attended art school first then went on to Harvard University majoring in English Literature. Majority of his time went to his art work. He graduated from college in 1942, joined the the Marine Corps , and was discharged because he was extremely ill.
In 1943 at the Art Students League Of New York is when he began his studing. Kenneth Hayes Miller were two of his teachers at the ASL. He was compared with other painters such as Andrew Wyeth and Edward Hopper other famous artist. Although he was raised in a religious (Episcopalian) family he later converted to Catholicism. He is a member of The American Academy of Art and Letters and he lives in Vermont.
Although he was raised in a religious family, Tooker stopped attending church when he began art school. Nevertheless, the religious art of the past affected him deeply and has remained a major influence throughout his career. Speaking of Bird Watchers, he explained: "I wanted to paint a positive picture, a religious picture without religious subject matter. I thought watching birds was a good subject which could get close to a religious picture, but I was not yet ready to make a painting with a religious subject."
Based on Quattro cento Italian prototypes, Bird Watchers suggests the Crucifixion, with the figures of Mary, Mary Magdalene, and the apostles and soldiers at the foot of the cross, which is represented by the tree to the right. The panel itself, with its arched top, refers to Renaissance altarpieces. The painting was thought in Manhattan's Central Park. Although the figures are clearly from the late 1940s, Tooker detached all excessive detail from their clothing in order to suggest a more everlasting simplicity. “Critics noticed the topcoat of the main figure has no buttons or buttonholes and becomes a loose robe of indeterminate style. The figures are monumental and stiffly posed, the composition stable and static, the faces, modeled for the most part on Tooker himself, his friends, and his family, standardized and repetitious. The use of primary colors enhances the painting's calmness and stability while also evoking Italian paintings”.
Some critics have described his style as "magic realism," but he was not interested in the false effects that many of the painters of that style espouse. He has regarded himself as more of a reporter or observer of society than an interpreter. It was also said, “He is considered to be of Magic Realism’s most prominent visual artists. "Magic Realism" is a rather vaguely defined movement. German critic Franz Roh to describe the dreamlike symbolic art of De Chirico and his Italian cohorts coined the name in 1923. (1) The term was made popular in this country by the Museum of Modern Art's 1943 exhibition "American Realists and Magic Realists," which distinguished the fantastic imagery of painters such as Paul Cadmus and Ivan Albright from the more conventional realism of Edward Hopper and Charles Sheeler. Despite the suggestion of the Chazen exhibition's title, these Midwest artists never defined themselves as being part of any movement. Salvador Dali's New York debut in the early 1930s seemed to have opened the doors for American artists across the country to develop their own styles of fantasy-tinged surrealism. (2)
Working within the then-revitalized tradition of egg tempera, His work addressed affecting issues of modern-day alienation with subtly eerie and often visually literal depictions of social withdrawal and isolation. Subway and Government Bureau are two of his best-known paintings. The word "tempera" derives from the medieval Latin temperate; meaning blending or mixing. Today, the word indicates a medium bound with emulsions, combined with dry pigments and water. The exhibition considers techniques using both egg yolk (egg tempera) and milk proteins as principal emulsions. Mesmerized by geometric design and symmetry, he works slowly, completely about two paintings a year because he spends much time searching for the underlying idea.
This work of art captured my eye because I was interested in knowing what the people were looking at. The day appeared to be a Sunday afternoon after church. The people are fascinated about the site they witness in the tree. Their clothing was very plain but colorful. The man in front in the light color trench coat had a “wow” look on his face with his hands tilt in the upward position. The individual standing on the bridge was also focused on what was going on in the tree.
George Tooker used egg tempera. The artist established and old dreary time period through color and composition. The function it serves is to display “Magic Realism” a time period when the symbolism the work contained were ordinary people and their expressions.
The message I interrupted was people trying to figure out what type of bird was in the tree. The worker exhibited facial expression. The message communicated in these painting suggests the Crucifixion. The cultural, political, economic, social or religious influence on the life of the artist and the community in which he/she worked was to show magic in his artwork. The style of the work reflects the time or culture in which it is made was Renaissance altarpieces. The composition appears to show Europeans rear the river.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Tooker -
www.rogallery.com/tooker_george/tooker-biography.htm -
Thomas H. Garver, George Tooker (New York: Clarkson N. Potter, 1985)
Greta Berman and Jeffrey Wechsler, Realism and Realities: The Other Side of American Painting, 1940-1960 (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Art Gallery, 1982)
1 comment:
From a manuscript written by Kathleen Kienholz for the Museum's catalog:
Although he was raised in a religious family, Tooker stopped attending church when he began art school. Nevertheless, the religious art of the past affected him deeply and has remained a major influence throughout his career. Speaking of Bird Watchers, he explained: "I wanted to paint a positive picture, a religious picture without religious subject matter. I thought watching birds was a good subject which could get close to a religious picture, but I was not yet ready to make a painting with a religious subject."
Based on quattrocento Italian prototypes, Bird Watchers suggests the Crucifixion, with the figures of Mary, Mary Magdalene, and the apostles and soldiers at the foot of the cross, which is represented by the tree to the right. The panel itself, with its arched top, refers to Renaissance altarpieces.
The painting is most likely set in Manhattan's Central Park. Although the figures are clearly from the late 1940s, Tooker removed all excess detail from their clothing in order to evoke a more timeless simplicity. For instance, the topcoat of the main figure has no buttons or buttonholes and becomes a loose robe of indeterminate style. The figures are monumental and stiffly posed, the composition stable and static, the faces, modeled for the most part on Tooker himself, his friends, and his family, standardized and repetitious. The use of primary colors enhances the painting's calmness and stability while also evoking Italian paintings. Moreover, the arched stone bridges and rocky outcroppings, while characteristic of Central Park, are simplified and stylized in the manner of Giotto and his contemporaries.
I could find where the rest came from but that wouldn't help anything at this point.
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