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City Perspectives


Raymond Jonson, City Perspectives, 1932, oil on canvas, Gift of Mr. Arthur H. Johnson, © artist or other rights holder, 78.17

This work is on view.

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Details
Title

City Perspectives

Artist

Raymond Jonson (American, 1891-1982)

Date

1932

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions (H x W x D)

47 3/4 in x 37 3/4 in

Inscriptions & Markings

signature; date: Jonson 32, brushed, lower right

Collection Area

Modern and Contemporary Art; American Art

Category

Paintings

Object Type

painting

Culture

American

Credit Line

Gift of Mr. Arthur H. Johnson

Accession Number

78.17

Copyright

© artist or other rights holder

Terms

canvas

cityscapes

high-rise buildings

oil paint

oil paintings

paintings

Location

Belluschi Building

Ayer Wing

2nd Floor

Ronna and Eric Hoffman Gallery

Description

Raymond Jonson was best known as the founder of the Transcendental Painting Group in Santa Fe, where he settled in 1924 and painted primarily abstract works. He spent his formative years as part of Chicago's avant-garde where he was mentored by Bror Nordfeldt, whose work is also on view. This painting was one of seven canvases that comprise Jonson's last body of representational paintings and exemplifies the movement's manifesto: "to carry painting beyond the appearance of the physical world, through new concepts of space, color, light and design, to imaginative realms that are idealistic and spiritual." City Perspectives is a rendition of "metropolis-as-machine" and has stylistic ties with the work of Italian Futurists and American Precisionists, echoing their fascination with the Industrial Age.

History
Exhibitions

2023 Throughlines: Connections in the Collection Portland Art Museum

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