Artwork Page for Tan Still Life

Details / Information for Tan Still Life

Tan Still Life

c. 1932

Alfred Maurer

(American, 1868–1932)
Culture
America
Medium
gouache
Support
Paper board, mounted to thin paper board
Measurements
Overall: 25.4 x 37.9 cm (10 x 14 15/16 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of Tommy and Gill LiPuma in loving memory of Josephine LiPuma Kestner 2003.55
Copyright
Copyright
This artwork is known to be under copyright.
Location
Not on view
Print

Description

During the last years of his life, from about 1927 to 1932, Maurer painted a series of still lifes that contributed significantly to the Cubist revival that swept America in the 1920s. This Cubist design is especially severe—the forms clarified and reduced to a few, distinct shapes isolated in the center of the composition. Forms rarely overlap across the thin painted surface. Decorative stripes, zigzags, and dots further distinguish the individuality of each shape and at the same time add lateral vibrancy to the design. The painting’s lucid structure points toward the reductive simplicity that distinguished American Cubism of the 1930s and contributed to the leaner geometries of the American Abstract Artists, a group founded in New York in 1937. Although Maurer ranks among America’s most inventive and prolific artists, he failed to received significant critical recognition during his lifetime.

Tan Still Life

c. 1932

Alfred Maurer

(American, 1868–1932)
America

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