Red Grass Planet

Painting

-

DePaul Art Museum

Name/Title

Red Grass Planet

Entry/Object ID

5191

Description

Other worldly landscape with two mounds of land resembling islands, one in the foreground and one in the background with a dark body of water separating the two. Light colored abstract monuments sit on either island. The uppermost section of the painting shows a dark, cyan blue sky with colorful planets throughout.

Artwork Details

Medium

charcoal, tempera on strathmore board, mounted onto cardboard

Context

The 1960’s marked the last decade of Julia Thecla’s artistic career and somewhat of a restoration of her place in Chicago’s art world. Thecla thrived in the artistic community of Chicago in the 1930’s and 40’s, but fell to the margins in the 1950’s. She is considered a surrealist painter or a part of the “magic realism” group along with Gertrude Abercrombie and Ivan Albright. While her early work shows more human and animal figures, her later works such as this one, were focused on space. These space themed paintings are thought to have been either a reflection of America’s obsession with the “race for space” at the time, or an escape route for Thecla out of this dimension and into another.

Acquisition

Notes

Collection of DePaul University, gift of Helen T. Findlay

Made/Created

Artist

Thecla, Julia

Date made

1961

Ethnography

Notes

United States North America, United States

Lexicon

Legacy Lexicon

Object Name

Mixed Media

Class

MIXED MEDIA

Dimensions

Dimension Description

Image

Height

24 in

Width

38.1 cm

Depth

20 in

Length

50.8 cm

Dimension Notes

(matted)

Exhibition

Julia Thecla: Undiscovered Worlds

Interpretative Labels

Label

Red Grass Planet Thecla, Julia 1961 Circular forms in a landscape from another world, black circle dominates the upper mid area