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Artwork Page for Gray and Gold

Details / Information for Gray and Gold

Gray and Gold

1942
(American, 1915–1990)
America
oil on canvas
Framed: 116 x 152 x 12.5 cm (45 11/16 x 59 13/16 x 4 15/16 in.); Unframed: 91.5 x 151.8 cm (36 x 59 3/4 in.)
Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund 1943.60
Location: 226B American Modern
Copyright
This artwork is known to be under copyright.

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Did You Know?

A framed reproduction of this painting is displayed on the living room walls of a farmhouse in the sci-fi film Looper, starring Bruce Willis.

Description

Cox painted Gray and Gold shortly after the United States joined the Second World War, and its image of amber waves of grain threatened by ominous storm clouds likely has symbolic overtones. The painting's foreground features an intersection of two dirt lanes, as well as a telephone pole emblazoned with political campaign posters. The artist seems to imply that American democracy is at a crossroads during this time of combat against the spread of fascism in Europe and Asia. Interestingly the work was inspired by the landscape around Cox's hometown of Terre Haute, Indiana, a location nicknamed "The Crossroads of America" due to the junction of major north-south and east-west national highways within its city limits. The museum purchased this painting out of a traveling exhibition entitled "Artists for Victory," which consisted of works by artists who wanted to assist in the war effort. The exhibition opened at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York on the first anniversary of the bombing at Pearl Harbor.
An oil painting of a neatly squared golden field of grain bisected by the dirt road of a four-way intersection and contrasting with mountainous gray storm clouds hanging overhead. A row of telephone poles lines the side of the road, extending beyond the horizon of the field. Texturing the smooth layers of paint, lines of dots speckle the center of the roads like rocks while small lines and swishes convey the texture of the grain fields.

Gray and Gold

1942

John Rogers Cox

(American, 1915–1990)
America

See Also

Videos

Amber Waves of Grain

The Artist

Clouds of War

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