Bar Decoration II

Artist Jack Tworkov (American (b. Poland), 1900 - 1982)

CultureAmerican

Date1963-64

MediumOil on canvas

DimensionsOverall: 51 x 74 in. (129.5 x 188 cm)

InscribedSigned "Tworkov" lower right; dated "63-64".

Credit LineGift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.

Object number71.736

Not on view

DescriptionOil on canvas painting. Broad bands of saturated blue and red race headlong across the lower edge of the canvas while ragged strokes of blue shoot up and side-to-side.
Label TextJack Tworkov American, b. Poland, 1900–1982 Bar Decoration II, 1963–64 Oil on canvas In Bar Decoration II, broad bands of saturated blue and red race headlong across the lower edge of the canvas while ragged strokes of blue shoot up and side-to-side. Although often described as pure abstraction with no connection to the visible world, it is hard not to feel the pulse of a busy city in the painting’s heavy “bars” and gestural “decoration.” More than a representation of a city, however, the tension between the painting’s solid, grid-like structure and the busy action it supports—that is, the tension between order and randomness—gives the painting its edgy, urban feel. Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. 71.736 Exhibition History"Three Hundred Years of American Art in the Chrysler Museum," Chrysler Museum at Norfolk, Va., March 1 - July 4, 1976. Published ReferencesDennis R. Anderson, _Three Hundred Years of American Art in the Chrysler Museum_, exh. cat., Norfolk, Va., 1975.