Fascism

1934

Francis Criss

Associated Names
Francis H. Criss

Artist, American, 1901 - 1973

This painting shows a street scene with surrounding architecture. The horizon is formed by a line of buildings, with the cream-and-green street curving below them. The buildings are in shades of tan and brown, and there are several flags hanging from the windows, with stripes of green, white, and red. In the center of the painting, there is a column with a statue on top casting a shadow on the street below. Various people are seen on the street, including two people sitting on the column pedestal, two people walking down the street on the left, and two people standing on the right, dressed in uniforms suggesting law enforcement. The color palette includes warm and vibrant tones like terracotta and ochre on the buildings, green, white, and red for flags and decorations, and a blue sky.
This object’s media is not available for download. Contact us about image usage.
Not on view See artworks now on view

Artwork overview

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Collection of the artist; the artist's daughter, Ruth Criss Berke; sold 17 December 1993 through (Brian Gross Fine Art, San Francisco) to Linda Lichtenberg Kaplan, Washington; gift 4 September 2003 to the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; acquired 2016 by the National Gallery of Art.[1]
[1] The 2003 gift to the CGA was a partial and promised gift which was then transferred by Kaplan to the NGA on 4 May 2016.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1937

  • 15th Biennial Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 28 March - 9 May 1937, no. 441, repro.

1939

  • American Art Today, World's Fair, New York, 1939, no. 105.

1941

  • National Art Society, College of Architecture, Cornell University, Ithaca, May 1941.

1966

  • Francis Criss: Retrospective, Visual Arts Gallery, New York, 1966, no. 26.

1986

  • Commemorative Exhibition of the 50th Anniversary of the American Artists Congress (1936-1942), A.C.A. Galleries, New York, 1 February - 1 March 1986.

1991

  • Painting a Place in America: Jewish Artists in New York, 1900-1945. A Tribute to the Educational Alliance Art School, Jewish Museum, New York, 16 May - 29 September 1991, no. 23.

2001

  • Restructuring Reality: The 1930s Paintings of Francis Criss, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art, University of Florida, Gainesville; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, 2001-2002.

2005

  • Encouraging American Genius: Master Paintings from the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Parrish Art Museum, Southampton; Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte; John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, 2005-2007, checklist no. 88 (shown only in Washington).

Bibliography

1939

  • Bear, Donald J. "American Art Today [exh. review]." Art Digest 13, no. 17 (1 June 1939): 24.

1941

  • Renwick, Stephen Lee. "More about Perspective." American Artist 5, no. 2 (February 1941): 12, repro.

1982

  • Fort, Illene Susan. "American Social Surrealism." Archives of American Art Journal 22, no. 3 (1982): 14 fig. 8, 15.

1986

  • Criss, Katherine. "Current Exhibition." Criss Views 1, no. 2 (1986): 3, repro.

1989

  • Whiting, Cecile. Antifascism in American Art. New Haven and London, 1989: 204 n. 2.

2001

  • Lewis, Jo Ann. "Twist on a Modernist." The Washington Post (4 August 2001).

2011

  • Cash, Sarah, ed. Corcoran Gallery of Art : American Paintings to 1945. Edited by Sarah Cash. Washington, 2011: , repro.

Inscriptions

upper right: Criss 34

Wikidata ID

Q108686860

You may be interested in

Loading Results