Dry Bones

Mose Tolliver

About 1984

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Three horizontal rectangles in left half of paper, each containing abstract line drawing.
Barbershop, Tuskegee, Alabama, Chester Higgins, gelatin silver print
The painting's foreground is reddish pink. A red "horizon" line delineates this section and a pale pink background. A linear arrangement of Images/objects stand at the horizon. Most are recognizable and recurrent Guston objects: a pair of skinny, upturned legs in hobnail shoes, a knife blade, portion of a brick chimney or wall, a tool handle, the back of a stretched, oval canvas. Other areas are simply shapes or areas of paint. A red-outlined rectangle hovers at the painting's top left. Rendered in a palate of queasy rose and gray with punches of green, orange, and ochre, this cryptic configuration is compositionally direct, like a comic panel.
Abraham Lincoln (walking), Rev. J. L. Hunter, painted wood