Float
1970
Walter Miller Askin (American, 1929-2021)
Not on View

Walter Askin’s skill as a draftsman was already well developed by the time the Pasadena native went to the University of California, Berkeley for art school. His father was a draftsman with the city of Pasadena, and Walter and his brother, who would eventually become an architect, came of age in a household where putting pencil to paper was part of daily life. It is thus no surprise that drawing is fundamental to all of Askin’s work, regardless of medium. His lithographs, of which he considers these two among his finest examples, his sculpture with drawn decals, and his paintings all include the whimsical line drawings and exquisitely modeled elements that define his work. The lightheartedness and humor present in Askin’s oeuvre often belies a more serious tone, however. Invented worlds with human-like figures are inspired by both non-Western and Western art, and this deliberate incorporation of art history, absorbed over his decades as a professor of art, contextualizes his work alongside the canon. His content deals with issues as far-ranging as the dichotomous relationship between the sexes and the criticism of art itself.

Details

  • Artist Name: Walter Miller Askin (American, 1929-2021)
  • Title: Float
  • Date: 1970
  • Medium: oil and charcoal on linen canvas
  • Dimensions: 44 x 50 inches (111.8 x 127 cm)
  • Credit Line: Norton Simon Museum, Gift of Elise Anne Doyle
  • Accession Number: P.2009.2.2
  • Copyright: © Walter Askin

Object Information

Elise Anne Doyle, gift 2009 to;
Norton Simon Museum.

Exceptionally Gifted: Recent Donations to the Norton Simon Museum (2002-2008)

  • Norton Simon Museum, 2009-04-17 to 2009-08-31

Additional Artwork by Artist

Bruegel-Britannia Walter Miller Askin 1970
Offenbach and Rose Walter Miller Askin 1973
Ostend Walter Miller Askin 1970

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