Beast

1968

Alejandro Aróstegui

Associated Names
Alejandro Aróstegui

Painter, Nicaraguan, born 1935

This painting features a series of angular and curved shapes against a textured background. These shapes create a shape that looks like a skeletal bull or horse-like creature with prominent horns, wide round eyes, and a thin face. Its neck is a long line that leads to a round body. The legs are faint and indistinct. The colors of the painting are muted, earthy tones, mostly bluish-grays, dark greens, and a muted brown-red color. The background is split into two sections, with the bottom section slightly greener and the top section slightly bluer. Many of the features of the creature are distinguishable not by color, but by texture; in many places the paint appears to pucker or crease, and these creases create many of the features of the animal.
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On View

East Building Upper Level, Gallery E407


Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil and mixed media on canvas and board

  • Credit Line

    Gift of Werth V. Zuver

  • Dimensions

    overall: 123.19 × 93.98 cm (48 1/2 × 37 in.)
    framed: 122.56 × 94.62 × 4.45 cm (48 1/4 × 37 1/4 × 1 3/4 in.)

  • Accession Number

    2019.101.2


Artwork history & notes

Provenance

The artist; purchased 1968 by Werth V. Zuver, Washington, D.C.;[1] gift 2019 to NGA.
[1] Zuver made partial payments to the artist for the painting beginning in 1968 and had paid for it in full by 1972; see Zuver's 2019 statement and supporting documentation in NGA curatorial files.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1970

  • [Alejandro Arostegui exhibition], Fondo del Sol, Washington, D.C., 1970.

Inscriptions

top center reverse: BESTIA / A Arostegui / NYC 1968

Wikidata ID

Q108686919

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