This painting displays angular shapes and planes that give the abstract impression of two faces. Triangular and trapezoidal forms dominate the composition in shades of yellow, green, and tan, with some hints of rosy pink. Near the center of the painting, there are four eyes: one blue, one yellow, one green, and one red. They don't have irises and are solid color with black pupils. Lines run through the eyes, giving them a fractured appearance. Below the eyes, there are two triangles facing each other that could be the noses of the faces, and below those are thin red mouths. Both people appear to have short black hair and wear dark garments. The background is made of rectangles of teal, green, and gray. The brushstrokes in the painting are visible, with some thick and some thin. In many places, the paint is streaky, revealing some of the white canvas below.
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This painting displays angular shapes and planes that give the abstract impression of two faces. Triangular and trapezoidal forms dominate the composition in shades of yellow, green, and tan, with some hints of rosy pink. Near the center of the painting, there are four eyes: one blue, one yellow, one green, and one red. They don't have irises and are solid color with black pupils. Lines run through the eyes, giving them a fractured appearance. Below the eyes, there are two triangles facing each other that could be the noses of the faces, and below those are thin red mouths. Both people appear to have short black hair and wear dark garments. The background is made of rectangles of teal, green, and gray. The brushstrokes in the painting are visible, with some thick and some thin. In many places, the paint is streaky, revealing some of the white canvas below.

National Gallery of Art · Painting

Abstract Heads

Alfred H. Maurer

Date
c. 1931
Medium
unidentified media on fabric mounted on panel
Dimensions
overall: 66.04 × 45.72 cm (26 × 18 in.) framed: 86.36 × 63.5 × 3.18 cm (34 × 25 × 1 1/4 in.)
Classification
Painting
Accession number
2014.136.136
Credit line
Corcoran Collection (Museum Purchase, William A. Clark Fund, 1979)
Time span
1926 to 1950
Department
CAB

Subjects and terms

  • painted surface
  • American
  • Figure
  • Acquired after completion of manuscript for American Paintings of the Twentieth Century, Part I: Early American Modernism
  • heads
  • figure
Provenance

(Bertha Schaefer Gallery, New York). Marshall Frankel [d. 1986], Chicago. (Robert Schoelkopf Gallery, New York); purchased 5 November 1979 by the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; acquired 2014 by the National Gallery of Art.

NGA object ID 195301. Collection metadata is reproduced under CC0. This work is included because its NGA published-image record is marked open access; visitors should recheck the source record before substantial reuse.