Landscape with Figures III
Tooker was associated with a small coterie of artists who practiced a style of painting (mostly in tempera) often described as Magic Realism, a figurative branch of Surrealism that frequently presents bodies in unusual, highly staged tableaux with intense, but unresolved psychological resonances and many references to the Italian Renaissance. Featuring a compressed group of finely dressed women with two men flanked by fenced walls, this "late," characteristically strange work functions largely as a critique of high society. Chillingly, the figures appear as interchangeable automatons—the women are distinct from each other only in the color and style of their gowns—suggesting intensive cultural conformity and homogeneity. The scene’s ominous effect is enhanced by the presence of imprisoned figures on both sides. The pair on the left refers to Italian Renaissance artist Masaccio’s Expulsion of Adam and Eve (Brancacci Chapel, Florence; 1425), albeit in reverse orientation.
Artwork Details
- Title: Landscape with Figures III
- Artist: George Tooker (American, Brooklyn, New York 1920–2011 Hartland, Vermont)
- Date: 1989
- Medium: Tempera on wood panel
- Dimensions: 20 × 30 in. (50.8 × 76.2 cm)
- Classification: Paintings
- Credit Line: Bequest of James David Draper, from the Robert Isaacson Collection, 2019
- Object Number: 2021.18
- Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art
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