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The Intruder

Artist Benny Andrews (American, 1930-2006)

Date1964

MediumMixed media on canvas

DimensionsOverall: 51 5/8 x 46 1/2 in. (131.1 x 118.1 cm)

ClassificationsModern art

Credit LineGift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.

Object number71.794

Terms

Women
Interior
Chair
African-American Artist
Red
White
Black
Purple
Brown
Blue
New York

Collections

Modern and Contemporary

On View

Not on view

DescriptionThis is a mixed media on canvas painting of an African-American woman in a red dress in a blue armchair, on the left of the canvas. Her dress is a low relief of fabric painted over with primarily red paint; purple paint is used on the dress for shadowing. Her face is collaged. Clenching her fingers slightly, her hands are crossed and rest on top of a round white pillow on her lap. Behind her is the interior of large living room; a chandelier hangs in front of the window from the ceiling, and a few works of art are displayed: a portrait hangs on the back wall and a marble sculpture sits on the side table.

Label TextBenny Andrews American, 1930–2006 Intruder, 1964 Mixed media on canvas In Intruder, an African American woman is pressed uncomfortably into the foreground of a grand interior. With its expensive furnishings and exaggerated proportions, the palatial room signals a pretentious, whites-only realm of status and wealth. Benny Andrews’ combination of painted and collaged materials accentuates the sense that the woman is out of place. The blue chair and details of the room are in oil, but the woman’s head is roughly sculpted paper and her dress is painted fabric. Created one year after Martin Luther King, Jr. led the March on Washington and appealed to Congress for civil rights legislation, the work grapples with the social upheavals of the period. Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. 71.794