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Ascent (Red)
1962
75 x 50 3/4 x 2 1/2 in. (190.5 x 128.91 x 6.35 cm)
Frank Lobdell (Kansas City, Missouri, 1921 - 2013, Palo Alto, California)
Visual Politics: The Art of Engagement, November 20, 2005 - March 5, 2006, San José Museum of Art. Circulated to: Katzen Art Center at American University, Washington, DC, April 9-July 29, 2006.
Frank Lobdell: Wonderland, March 10, 2012 - August 5, 2012, New Wing, Second Floor, North Gallery, San José Museum of Art.
Label copy created for Frank Lobdell: Wonderland (2012)
Frank Lobdell was deeply affected by the horrific events he experienced while fighting in World War II. He recalled in 1980: “My identity was shaken…it took a long time for me to sort out what happened…I painted my way out of this…an unloading on the canvas.” Indeed, in many of his paintings from the late 1940s and the 1950s, ghostlike forms seem to evoke the pain and suffering he had witnessed. Lobdell’s wartime experiences influenced his painting well into the 1960s when the artist also began to focus primarily on space.
In Ascent (Red), a massive snakelike form ascends circuitously up the painting’s surface and penetrates aggressively through space. Lobdell derived the distorted figures and compacted shapes that fill this form from his earlier work. The cruciform figure in the painting’s upper right corner echoes the outstretched posture of the central character in The Third of May 1808, 1814 by Francisco de Goya (1746 – 1828), a work Lobdell admired and most likely saw while studying in Paris in 1951. Lobdell’s intense brushwork helps to convey a sense of monumentality and finitude, a reminder of the tragedies of war and its continual presence in the artist’s work.
-- Rory Padeken, associate curator
Label copy created for Visual Politics: The Art of Engagement (2005-2006)
Having served in the infantry in Germany during World War II, Lobdell’s artistic vision was profoundly shaped by the war. The brutality of his experiences, followed by the political and social unrest of the McCarthy Era, all contributed to his perspective on the human condition.
Lobdell incorporated symbols of martyrdom and sacrifice into his paintings. In Ascent (Red), semi-abstracted images of a lamb’s head, crucifix and bird’s wing are painted with a palette suggesting blood and soot.
-- Susan Landauer, former curator
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Ascent (Red)
Painting
196275 x 50 3/4 x 2 1/2 in. (190.5 x 128.91 x 6.35 cm)
Frank Lobdell (Kansas City, Missouri, 1921 - 2013, Palo Alto, California)
Object Type: Painting
Medium and Support: Oil on canvas
Credit Line: Museum purchase with funds contributed by Tom and Polly Bredt
Accession Number: 2005.33.01
Exhibition
Visual Politics: The Art of Engagement, November 20, 2005 - March 5, 2006, San José Museum of Art. Circulated to: Katzen Art Center at American University, Washington, DC, April 9-July 29, 2006.
Frank Lobdell: Wonderland, March 10, 2012 - August 5, 2012, New Wing, Second Floor, North Gallery, San José Museum of Art.
SJMA Label Text
Label copy created for Frank Lobdell: Wonderland (2012)
Frank Lobdell was deeply affected by the horrific events he experienced while fighting in World War II. He recalled in 1980: “My identity was shaken…it took a long time for me to sort out what happened…I painted my way out of this…an unloading on the canvas.” Indeed, in many of his paintings from the late 1940s and the 1950s, ghostlike forms seem to evoke the pain and suffering he had witnessed. Lobdell’s wartime experiences influenced his painting well into the 1960s when the artist also began to focus primarily on space.
In Ascent (Red), a massive snakelike form ascends circuitously up the painting’s surface and penetrates aggressively through space. Lobdell derived the distorted figures and compacted shapes that fill this form from his earlier work. The cruciform figure in the painting’s upper right corner echoes the outstretched posture of the central character in The Third of May 1808, 1814 by Francisco de Goya (1746 – 1828), a work Lobdell admired and most likely saw while studying in Paris in 1951. Lobdell’s intense brushwork helps to convey a sense of monumentality and finitude, a reminder of the tragedies of war and its continual presence in the artist’s work.
-- Rory Padeken, associate curator
Label copy created for Visual Politics: The Art of Engagement (2005-2006)
Having served in the infantry in Germany during World War II, Lobdell’s artistic vision was profoundly shaped by the war. The brutality of his experiences, followed by the political and social unrest of the McCarthy Era, all contributed to his perspective on the human condition.
Lobdell incorporated symbols of martyrdom and sacrifice into his paintings. In Ascent (Red), semi-abstracted images of a lamb’s head, crucifix and bird’s wing are painted with a palette suggesting blood and soot.
-- Susan Landauer, former curator
Location Latitude: 2nd Floor Gallery - North, Longitude: WR 3 Front
Additional Images Click an image to view a larger version
Exhibition List
This object was included in the following exhibitions: - Visual Politics: The Art of Engagement , 11/20/2005 - 7/29/2006
Dimensions
- Image Dimensions: 75 x 50 3/4 x 2 1/2 in. (190.5 x 128.91 x 6.35 cm)
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