Object Details
Artist
Clyfford Still, born Grandin, ND 1904-died Baltimore, MD 1980
Luce Center Label
Clyfford Still painted Row of Elevators early in his career, and the scene probably shows a view near his family's farm in Alberta, Canada. The image suggests optimism at first, because the towering grain elevators, steam train, and tractor emphasize man's ability to work the land. But the abandoned machinery, subdued colors, and bleak vegetation evoke the underlying hardships faced by many farmers in order to survive.
Luce Object Quote
"When I was a young man I painted many landscapes---especially of the prairie and of men and the machines with which they ripped a meager living from the thin top soil . . . yet always and inevitably with the rising forms of the vertical necessity of life dominating the horizon." The artist, 1972, quoted in Zilczer, Clyfford Still, Exhibition Catalogue, 2001
Credit Line
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of International Business Machines Corporation
Date
ca. 1928-1929
Object number
1969.128
Restrictions & Rights
Usage conditions apply
Type
Painting
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
34 1/4 x 44 1/2 in. (87.0 x 112.9 cm.)
See more items in
Smithsonian American Art Museum Collection
Department
Painting and Sculpture
On View
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Luce Foundation Center, 4th Floor, 36A
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Luce Foundation Center
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Luce Foundation Center, 4th Floor
Data Source
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Topic
Architecture\vehicle\truck
Architecture\industry\grain elevator
Architecture\vehicle\train
Architecture\industry\factory
Link to Original Record
Record ID
saam_1969.128