Walter Quirt’s Art 1952‑1956
In the early 1950s Quirt became interested in the space surrounding his painted figures. Paintings completed between 1951 and 1955 resemble the earlier Fun, 1950, in their use of expressive brushstrokes on white canvas grounds. Figurative elements were used sparingly, while the white areas of the canvases defined anatomical parts and landscape spaces.
Women became the main subject of Quirt's paintings in 1951, and they dominated the works shown in an exhibition at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, November 6‑December 25, 1955,
Although the paintings in the present exhibition were not among the sixteen on view in 1955 (Quirt wrote that all but one were destroyed after the exhibition), they have stylistic, technical, and thematic similarities to them. In the foreword to the catalogue, Quirt wrote that he chose woman as the theme for the canvases because "she symbolizes timeless procreative forces in nature ... She is contributing immensely to the psychological needs of a nation that is seemingly leaving an era of aggressive internal competitiveness to enter an age of benignity and cultural cohesiveness, "
He revealed that the content of his paintings was the social tempo or the psychological rate of change in America. He equated this tempo with the curvilinear direction and used the curve and countercurve line in most of his canvases. He wrote that the curvilinear line was taken from nature, "in particular from the separate branches of a pine tree to which I have devoted much study. It is a dissonant and erratic curve that I find in Nature, and it conveys feeling and natural warmth... I add other feelings stimulated by the social and psychological notions of our time, and in this way I attempt to unite forces in nature with forces in society.''
After the exhibition in 1955, Quirt's production slowed, but it accelerated again in 1958 when he added the symbol of the horse to his iconography.
In the early 1950s Quirt became interested in the space surrounding his painted figures. Paintings completed between 1951 and 1955 resemble the earlier Fun, 1950, in their use of expressive brushstrokes on white canvas grounds. Figurative elements were used sparingly, while the white areas of the canvases defined anatomical parts and landscape spaces.
Women became the main subject of Quirt's paintings in 1951, and they dominated the works shown in an exhibition at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, November 6‑December 25, 1955,
Although the paintings in the present exhibition were not among the sixteen on view in 1955 (Quirt wrote that all but one were destroyed after the exhibition), they have stylistic, technical, and thematic similarities to them. In the foreword to the catalogue, Quirt wrote that he chose woman as the theme for the canvases because "she symbolizes timeless procreative forces in nature ... She is contributing immensely to the psychological needs of a nation that is seemingly leaving an era of aggressive internal competitiveness to enter an age of benignity and cultural cohesiveness, "
He revealed that the content of his paintings was the social tempo or the psychological rate of change in America. He equated this tempo with the curvilinear direction and used the curve and countercurve line in most of his canvases. He wrote that the curvilinear line was taken from nature, "in particular from the separate branches of a pine tree to which I have devoted much study. It is a dissonant and erratic curve that I find in Nature, and it conveys feeling and natural warmth... I add other feelings stimulated by the social and psychological notions of our time, and in this way I attempt to unite forces in nature with forces in society.''
After the exhibition in 1955, Quirt's production slowed, but it accelerated again in 1958 when he added the symbol of the horse to his iconography.
These Painting of Walter Quirt are in The Quirt Family Collection and are potentially available
Other Paintings by Walter Quirt from this period
