by Artist (752)
George Tooker
American, 1920–2011
Working during the mid-20th-century period in an American art scene dominated by the Abstract Expressionists, the artist George Tooker practiced in a medium and style that radically contrasted with theirs. Tooker was a figurative painter/printmaker whose work emphasized images of contemporary life transformed into compositions that explore the human psyche. Table I is the first of a series of paintings made by Tooker portraying semi-nude young women draped in red with older figures observing them. This series, a group of works made between 1959 and 1981, encompasses themes of youth, age, and the passage of time. As in many of Tooker’s works, the space is box-like, the figures tightly compressed within it. Their blank facial expressions and static poses suggest that they are frozen, captured in a single moment in time. This sense of ambiguity and enigma are the hallmarks of George Tooker’s work as one of America’s great figurative artists of the 20th century.
American, 1920–2011
Table I
1959
Object Type:
Painting
Creation Place:
North America, American, Vermont
Dimensions:
24 x 28 in. (61 x 71 cm)
Medium and Support:
Egg tempera on wood panel
Accession Number:
2023.0008
Credit Line:
Gift of the Ida Belle Young Art Acquisition Fund
Currently On View
Working during the mid-20th-century period in an American art scene dominated by the Abstract Expressionists, the artist George Tooker practiced in a medium and style that radically contrasted with theirs. Tooker was a figurative painter/printmaker whose work emphasized images of contemporary life transformed into compositions that explore the human psyche. Table I is the first of a series of paintings made by Tooker portraying semi-nude young women draped in red with older figures observing them. This series, a group of works made between 1959 and 1981, encompasses themes of youth, age, and the passage of time. As in many of Tooker’s works, the space is box-like, the figures tightly compressed within it. Their blank facial expressions and static poses suggest that they are frozen, captured in a single moment in time. This sense of ambiguity and enigma are the hallmarks of George Tooker’s work as one of America’s great figurative artists of the 20th century.
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