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Lot Essay
Over the course of his career, George Tooker mastered the art of portraying evocative psychological images in a dreamlike, surrealist style using the traditional medium of egg tempera. Characterized by exacting detail and a representational technique, Tooker's oeuvre can be divided into two groups: his public paintings—social images filled with pedestrians within an urban forum, such as Coney Island or a subway platform—and his private paintings, which depict figures within distinctly intimate interior spaces. A compelling example of the latter category, Pot of Aloes employs the artist’s mastery of tempera to create a mesmerizing environment that transports the viewer into his imagined world.
Painted in Málaga, Spain, in 1974, Pot of Aloes is among a body of work known as 'The Spanish Pictures' that reflect a period of Tooker finding solace in art to mitigate the pain of his partner William Christopher’s passing that year. Set within a window framework often utilized by the artist, these works create "a clear sense of drama within a closely delimited space, and [feature] figures whose corporeality and density are felt as palpably as if they were carved from stone. The intensity of the images emerges as much from the visual drama of the space as from the dramatic tension of the scene." (T.H. Garver, George Tooker, San Francisco, California, 1992, p. 67)
In the present work, the titular plant forms the centerpiece of a strangely recursive interior, eerily echoing across the scene. As Thomas H. Garver describes, "The aloe, in a simple but elegant earthenware pot with crimped edges, displays its serrated leaves in a series of arabesques that Tooker has set against the shadowed interior of colorful patterned Andalusian tiles (the Spanish equivalent of New York's pressed tin)…Tooker recalls being very interested in potted plants at the time and was intrigued to see that even the poorest household in the barrio would invariably have at least one pot of flowers in the window." (George Tooker, p. 68) Tooker painted another composition featuring a potted flower this same year, Claveles (1974, New Britain Museum of American Art); a pencil study for this related painting is being offered from the same collection as the present work.
The sense of the uncanny in Pot of Aloes is underscored by the stillness of the scene; "Action is concentrated down to the most essential gesture required to convey meaning. Such simplification creates clarity, and an immediacy, in the emotional state in…the way the boy peeks curiously over his fingers in Pot of Aloes…" (George Tooker: A Retrospective, exhibition catalogue, Columbus, Ohio, 2008, p. 156) The dominant figure’s outward calmness seems to mask inner turmoil; as Garver further describes, "At the left, just inside from the window, in the coolness of the dimly lit room, stands a woman dressed in black, her hands folded and her face wearing an expression of slight melancholy. She looks out over the plant as if without seeing…" (George Tooker, San Francisco, California, 1992, p. 68) With every detail and shape meticulously rendered yet meaning left ambiguous, Pot of Aloes embodies how Tooker enchantingly employs "the power of the figurative tradition to engage both a humanist compassion and a shared wonder in the enigmatic qualities—the mysteries—of human experience." (M.M. Wolfe, "George Tooker: A Biography," in George Tooker: A Retrospective, exhibition catalogue, Columbus, Ohio, 2008, p. 35)
Painted in Málaga, Spain, in 1974, Pot of Aloes is among a body of work known as 'The Spanish Pictures' that reflect a period of Tooker finding solace in art to mitigate the pain of his partner William Christopher’s passing that year. Set within a window framework often utilized by the artist, these works create "a clear sense of drama within a closely delimited space, and [feature] figures whose corporeality and density are felt as palpably as if they were carved from stone. The intensity of the images emerges as much from the visual drama of the space as from the dramatic tension of the scene." (T.H. Garver, George Tooker, San Francisco, California, 1992, p. 67)
In the present work, the titular plant forms the centerpiece of a strangely recursive interior, eerily echoing across the scene. As Thomas H. Garver describes, "The aloe, in a simple but elegant earthenware pot with crimped edges, displays its serrated leaves in a series of arabesques that Tooker has set against the shadowed interior of colorful patterned Andalusian tiles (the Spanish equivalent of New York's pressed tin)…Tooker recalls being very interested in potted plants at the time and was intrigued to see that even the poorest household in the barrio would invariably have at least one pot of flowers in the window." (George Tooker, p. 68) Tooker painted another composition featuring a potted flower this same year, Claveles (1974, New Britain Museum of American Art); a pencil study for this related painting is being offered from the same collection as the present work.
The sense of the uncanny in Pot of Aloes is underscored by the stillness of the scene; "Action is concentrated down to the most essential gesture required to convey meaning. Such simplification creates clarity, and an immediacy, in the emotional state in…the way the boy peeks curiously over his fingers in Pot of Aloes…" (George Tooker: A Retrospective, exhibition catalogue, Columbus, Ohio, 2008, p. 156) The dominant figure’s outward calmness seems to mask inner turmoil; as Garver further describes, "At the left, just inside from the window, in the coolness of the dimly lit room, stands a woman dressed in black, her hands folded and her face wearing an expression of slight melancholy. She looks out over the plant as if without seeing…" (George Tooker, San Francisco, California, 1992, p. 68) With every detail and shape meticulously rendered yet meaning left ambiguous, Pot of Aloes embodies how Tooker enchantingly employs "the power of the figurative tradition to engage both a humanist compassion and a shared wonder in the enigmatic qualities—the mysteries—of human experience." (M.M. Wolfe, "George Tooker: A Biography," in George Tooker: A Retrospective, exhibition catalogue, Columbus, Ohio, 2008, p. 35)