The Rock by Peter Blume (1944-48)

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surrealist, cartoonish painting. At center on an earthen platform is a large object like the bottom of a pink broken egg, the inside being solid with cracks that look like an earthquake. around this object is a flurry of activity with human cartoon-like characters furiously building, on left, a large stone building with scaffolding, and on right are remnants of a stone house.

The Rock by Peter Blume (1944-48)

@artporn

My favorite painting at the moment. At the Art Institute of #Chicago.

#ArtHistory #surrealism #surrealisme #surrealismo #ModernArt #MuseumArchive #galleries #glam #ArtMuseum

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Wow, what a unique and transfixing piece. This reminds me a bit of some other artists’ work, but nothing exactly. Wow.

Thanks for sharing!

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Oooooh, nice.

A startling juxtaposition of images, The Rock depicts a shattered red rock resting on top of a base that is being demolished by workers below. Peter Blume labored for years to complete this painting, which was commissioned in 1939 by the Edgar Kaufmann family for Fallingwater, their Frank Lloyd Wright–designed home in Pennsylvania. Although the complex imagery resists easy interpretation, it may point to devastation and reconstruction, reflecting the turbulence of World War II and its aftermath. In the end, The Rock proved too large for Fallingwater and it was never displayed there.

https://www.artic.edu/artworks/56682/the-rock

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Blume

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