About the Object
This large-scale painting is based on a photograph Crawford took of torn signs in 1966 (VF2015.05.02), but also draws on elements from a 1972 photograph (VF2015.05.07) of the Holy Week procession in Seville, Spain. As this group of related works illustrates, for Crawford, it is not a one-to-one relationship, from photograph or drawing to painting, but rather a constellation of related works that inform one another in varying ways over long periods of time.
Additional Information
One of Crawford’s largest paintings, the other Celebration (Los Penitentes), 1972, in the collection of the Munson Williams Proctor Arts Institute, further illustrates the connections between Crawford’s Torn Signs and Semana Santa series. The work in the Vilcek Foundation Collection was included in the exhibition Ralston Crawford: Torn Signs at the Vilcek Foundation in 2019.
The Artist;
By descent to the Artist’s son, John C. Crawford, Brooklyn, NY;
Jan T. and Marica Vilcek Collection, New York, NY, 2015;
New York, NY. Zabriskie Gallery. Ralston Crawford. November 23-December 11, 1976, cat. no. 7.
New York, NY. Robert Miller Gallery. Ralston Crawford (1906-1978): An Exhibition of Abstract Works in Painting, Photography and Drawing. December 1, 1987-January 2, 1988.
Possibly: New York, NY. Hirschl & Adler Galleries. Ralston Crawford’s America. September 28-November 9, 1996.
New York, NY. Salander O’Reilly Galleries. Ralston Crawford (1906-1978): Paintings, Photographs & Drawings, May 10-June 30, 2007.
Corpus Christi, TX. The Art Museum of South Texas. Masterpieces of American Modernism from the Vilcek Collection of American Art. September 13, 2018-January 6, 2019.
New York, NY. Vilcek Foundation. Ralston Crawford: Torn Signs. May 13-November 13, 2019, pp. 17, 21, 26, 27-28, 32, 34, 39, 49-50, 60, 66, 106, 122, ill. pp. 30, 41, 67.
St. Peter, MN. The Hillstrom Museum of Art. Ralston Crawford: Torn Signs. September 12-November 6, 2022.
Haskell, Barbara. Ralston Crawford. New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 1985, p. 120-122, ill. p. 125, fig. 138.
Salvesen, Magda and Diane Cousineau, eds. Artists’ Estates: Reputations in Trust. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2005, ill. p. 274.