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Government Bureau

George Tooker American
1956
Not on view
While Tooker’s paintings typically convey his passionate desire for social harmony and justice, Government Bureau represents a darker, more pessimistic dimension of his art. The work takes the viewer inside a cold, starkly lit interior filled with anonymous bodies and cubicles. Eerily, the circular windows in the cubicle walls reveal nothing but the tired, sad eyes of government employees staring blankly. The scene’s unsettling remoteness is accentuated by Tooker’s fine and detailed technique, rooted in Italian Renaissance egg-tempera painting.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Government Bureau
  • Artist: George Tooker (American, Brooklyn, New York 1920–2011 Hartland, Vermont)
  • Date: 1956
  • Medium: Egg tempera on wood
  • Dimensions: 19 5/8 × 29 5/8 in. (49.8 × 75.2 cm)
  • Classification: Paintings
  • Credit Line: George A. Hearn Fund, 1956
  • Object Number: 56.78
  • Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art

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