The Student (L'Etudiante) / Gerome Kamrowski
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Record Details
- Accession Number
- 1975/1.77
- Title
- The Student (L'Etudiante)
- Artist
- Gerome Kamrowski
- Artist Nationality
- American
- Artist Life Dates
- 1914 - 2004
- Medium and Support
- oil on canvas
- Object Creation Date
- 1950
- Object Creation Place
- North and Central America (continent)
- United States (nation)
- Creation Place 1
- North and Central America (continent)
- Creation Place 2
- United States (nation)
- Credit Line
- Gift of Mr. Jean Paul Slusser
- Style/Group/Movement
- Surrealist
- Inscription
- Inscribed l.r.: KAMROWSKI
- Dimensions
- 76.4 cm x 30.4 cm (30 1/16 in. x 11 15/16 in.)
- Century
- 20th century
- Primary Object Classification
- Painting
- Primary Object Type
- abstract
- Physical Description
- On a narrow canvas a background of overlapping, rounded segments of blues, grays, and greens suggests rock. These layers build up to warmer colors, and on the surface of the layers are several shapes executed in white line suggestive of cave-painting. The shapes looks like microscopic organisms and are connected by the nerve-like white lines. As a whole, the visual elements are also suggestive of a seated figure, and the white shapes then appear as organs.
- Subject Matter
- Kamrowski's work creates a self-contained other-world of shapes and colors suggestive of microscopic life, terrestrial existence, and the cosmos. The execution also suggests primitive cave art, linking the work to a commentary on the roots of the human psyche. This piece can also be read as presenting the viewer a human form, perhaps the student of the title, whose body is composed of the lithic sections of cold colors and whose physical and psychical inner workings are represented in the white shapes that are connected by the nerve-like lines. The figure appears to be seated in a pose of meditation and the white shapes appear to occupy the shakra power centers described in Hinduism
- Primary Keywords
- abstraction
- biomorphic abstraction
- figures (representations)
- oil painting
- spirituality
- surrealism
- surrealist
- Secondary Keywords
- visual arts
- artistic concepts
- associated concepts
- concepts in the arts
- descriptors
- european
- european styles and periods
- forms of expression
- genres
- image-making processes and techniques
- modern and contemporary art
- modern european fine arts styles and movements
- modern european styles and movements
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- visual works by subject type
- Rights
- If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please visit https://umma.umich.edu/about/services/request-image/ for more information and to fill out the online Image Rights and Reproductions Request Form.
Technical Details
- Collection
- University of Michigan Museum of Art
- Image Size
- 585 x 1415
- File Size
- 111 KB
- Record
- 1975/1.77
- Link to this Item
-
https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/musart/x-1975-sl-1.77/1975_1.77.jpg
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- Full citation
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"The Student (L'Etudiante); Gerome Kamrowski." In the digital collection University of Michigan Museum of Art. https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/musart/x-1975-sl-1.77/1975_1.77.jpg. University of Michigan Library Digital Collections. Accessed March 19, 2024.