Walter Quirt’s Art 1963‑1966
Quirt did research for his last series of paintings while taking evening walks around Lake Harriet. He lived only three blocks from the lake and daily observed groups of people playing volleyball, sunbathing, biking, and swimming. These activities were central to the subjects in most canvases in this series. One sees bathers and swimmers in Diver 1963, Ambush 1965 and Two Figures, 1963. Volleyball players move frenetically, and figures play flirtatiously in Fun and Games 1965.
Although these paintings constitute a series that enacted parts of a theme, they also appear to move in several stylistic directions. Some were never explored beyond these initial canvases. Two paintings, Two Bathers 1963, and Two Figures 1963, could have been planned originally as a diptych. Fresh pastel colors covered both works in washes that resembled underpainting.
Another group of paintings within the Lake Harriet Series, Single Bather 1964, and Two Figures 1963, used intensely saturated colors painted with thick brushstrokes. This technique was possibly a stylistic holdover from the earlier canvases of horses, of which Yonder Blue 1962, and Tinkers Dam 1961 are representative.
A third direction within the Lake Harriet Series reflected the psychedelic era of the 1960s. Playful images with strong sexual content, goggle‑eyed ladies leer out in Ambush and Fun and Games. The characteristic vitality of Quirt's painting processes is found in these thinly painted gleeful figures.
Quirt did research for his last series of paintings while taking evening walks around Lake Harriet. He lived only three blocks from the lake and daily observed groups of people playing volleyball, sunbathing, biking, and swimming. These activities were central to the subjects in most canvases in this series. One sees bathers and swimmers in Diver 1963, Ambush 1965 and Two Figures, 1963. Volleyball players move frenetically, and figures play flirtatiously in Fun and Games 1965.
Although these paintings constitute a series that enacted parts of a theme, they also appear to move in several stylistic directions. Some were never explored beyond these initial canvases. Two paintings, Two Bathers 1963, and Two Figures 1963, could have been planned originally as a diptych. Fresh pastel colors covered both works in washes that resembled underpainting.
Another group of paintings within the Lake Harriet Series, Single Bather 1964, and Two Figures 1963, used intensely saturated colors painted with thick brushstrokes. This technique was possibly a stylistic holdover from the earlier canvases of horses, of which Yonder Blue 1962, and Tinkers Dam 1961 are representative.
A third direction within the Lake Harriet Series reflected the psychedelic era of the 1960s. Playful images with strong sexual content, goggle‑eyed ladies leer out in Ambush and Fun and Games. The characteristic vitality of Quirt's painting processes is found in these thinly painted gleeful figures.
The Paintings below are for sale
The paintings below are other examples of Walter Quirt's Art
