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Desert Restaurant
1986
50 x 70 in. (127 x 177.8 cm)
John Register (New York, New York, 1939 - 1996, Malibu, California)
Sleight of Hand: Painting and Illusion, October 2, 2014 - February 22, 2015, New Wing, Second Floor, Central Skylight and South Metro A Galleries, San José Museum of Art.
Real and HyperReal, January 30, 2010 - August 1, 2010, New Wing, First Floor, Gibson Family and Plaza Galleries, San José Museum of Art.
Collection Highlights, November 2, 2002 - September 12, 2004, New Wing, Gibson Family Gallery and Plaza Gallery, First Floor, San José Museum of Art.
Collecting Our Thoughts: The Community Responds to Art in the Permanent Collection, June 23, 2001 - September 23, 2001, New Wing, Metro A, Skylight and South Galleries, Second Floor, San José Museum of Art.
John Register: A Retrospective, January 16 – May 9, 1999, First Floor, New Wing, San José Museum of Art.
Sleight of Hand (2014 - 2015)
John Register had the keen sensibility of a realist, although Desert Restaurant, eerily devoid of people, is a fabrication, a psychological metaphor crafted by the artist’s mind. Register evoked feelings of silence and alienation that recall the work of the early twentieth-century painter Edward Hopper. Although Register was flattered by this comparison, he pointed out that “with Hopper, you witness someone else’s isolation; in my pictures, I think you, the viewer, become the isolated one.”
Register modeled this interior view after a restaurant he visited in Passaic, New Jersey. He replaced the waterfalls outside the large picture windows with a vast desert landscape scattered with sagebrush. The artist considered the desert a metaphor for his life’s journey: "I like desert imagery and the stillness it implies…. In Desert Restaurant, I wanted to show the difference between the shelter inside and the unforgiving desert outside. You can die in the desert. A café is refuge…the viewer sees a safe environment, while outside is an environment that would kill him."
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Desert Restaurant
Painting
198650 x 70 in. (127 x 177.8 cm)
John Register (New York, New York, 1939 - 1996, Malibu, California)
Object Type: Painting
Medium and Support: Oil on canvas
Credit Line: Gift of Susan and Arthur Kern
Accession Number: 2001.12
Exhibition
Sleight of Hand: Painting and Illusion, October 2, 2014 - February 22, 2015, New Wing, Second Floor, Central Skylight and South Metro A Galleries, San José Museum of Art.
Real and HyperReal, January 30, 2010 - August 1, 2010, New Wing, First Floor, Gibson Family and Plaza Galleries, San José Museum of Art.
Collection Highlights, November 2, 2002 - September 12, 2004, New Wing, Gibson Family Gallery and Plaza Gallery, First Floor, San José Museum of Art.
Collecting Our Thoughts: The Community Responds to Art in the Permanent Collection, June 23, 2001 - September 23, 2001, New Wing, Metro A, Skylight and South Galleries, Second Floor, San José Museum of Art.
John Register: A Retrospective, January 16 – May 9, 1999, First Floor, New Wing, San José Museum of Art.
SJMA Label Text
Sleight of Hand (2014 - 2015)
John Register had the keen sensibility of a realist, although Desert Restaurant, eerily devoid of people, is a fabrication, a psychological metaphor crafted by the artist’s mind. Register evoked feelings of silence and alienation that recall the work of the early twentieth-century painter Edward Hopper. Although Register was flattered by this comparison, he pointed out that “with Hopper, you witness someone else’s isolation; in my pictures, I think you, the viewer, become the isolated one.”
Register modeled this interior view after a restaurant he visited in Passaic, New Jersey. He replaced the waterfalls outside the large picture windows with a vast desert landscape scattered with sagebrush. The artist considered the desert a metaphor for his life’s journey: "I like desert imagery and the stillness it implies…. In Desert Restaurant, I wanted to show the difference between the shelter inside and the unforgiving desert outside. You can die in the desert. A café is refuge…the viewer sees a safe environment, while outside is an environment that would kill him."
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Exhibition List
This object was included in the following exhibitions: - Real and HyperReal San Jose Museum of Art , 1/30/2010 - 8/1/2010
Dimensions
- Image Dimensions: 50 x 70 in. (127 x 177.8 cm)
Bibliography List
This object has the following bibliographic references: - Selections: The San Jose Museum of Art Permanent Collection. Selections: The San Jose Museum of Art Permanent Collection San Jose Museum of Art. San Jose, CA, 2004
Page Number: 182-183
Portfolio List Click a portfolio name to view all the objects in that portfolio
This object is a member of the following portfolios: Your current search criteria is: Portfolio is "Figurative" and [Objects]Display Artist is "John Register".