Artwork Page for Rock at Sea

Details / Information for Rock at Sea

Rock at Sea

1920–1922

Raymond Jonson

(American, 1891–1982)
Culture
America
Medium
oil on canvas
Measurements
Unframed: 88.9 x 104.2 cm (35 x 41 in.)
Credit Line
Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund 2009.269
Public Domain
You can copy, modify, and distribute this work, all without asking permission. Learn more about CMA's Open Access Initiative.
Location
226A American Modern
Print
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Did You Know?

Jonson admired this composition, recycling it years later for a mountainous New Mexico landscape painting.

Description

The radically stylized tendencies in Rock at Sea were motivated by Jonson’s earlier work as an avant-garde scenic and lighting designer for the esteemed Chicago Little Theatre. Inspired by the jagged coast of Ogunquit, Maine, the painting’s visionary rendering of nature embodies the artist’s long-standing interest in communicating mystical concepts. Later, Jonson would move to Albuquerque, New Mexico, and co-found the Transcendental Painting Group, an association of artists dedicated to expressing the imaginative and spiritual realms through abstract art.
A horizontally oriented oil painting in muted green and blue tones depicts a rock structure rising in a series of blue outlined rocks with dark green, blue, purple, and pink coloring. Bubbly blue, teal, and light purple clouds rise in the upper left and lower right corners. A muted lime green sky shows through the background. Controlled, layered strokes create the painting with the paint reflecting light and giving the scene a glittering effect.

Rock at Sea

1920–1922

Raymond Jonson

(American, 1891–1982)
America

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