ArtistJohn Winslow
Higher Ground
Date2005
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions54 × 40 in. (137.2 × 101.6 cm)
Credit LineDC Commission on the Arts and Humanities Art Bank Collection
Object numberDCCAH2006.100
ClassificationsPaintings
Locations
- Currently Not on View
DescriptionThe three figures here in the foreground appear to be posed on a theater stage against a backdrop of a mountain climber scaling a perilous craggy cliff. The scene is meant to be a metaphor of the human aspiration for betterment in everything we do. The girl on the table in modern dress echoes in her tortuous pose the climber striving ever upward behind her. The wildness and danger of the background scenery is contrasted to the safety of the staged, manmade rectilinearity of the table and chairs and the casual 'indoor' dress of the actors. Likewise, the illusion of real three dimensional depth behind the figures is resisted by dividing the mountain scene into different rectilinear swaths of non-natural color and by superimposing tectonic painted markings which appear to remain on the painted surface. As in everything else Winslow paints there is an overarching imperative to achieve a balance between realism and abstract formal rigor.
