Two O Clock in the Afternoon

Name/Title

Two O Clock in the Afternoon

Entry/Object ID

2017.17

Description

Exterior view of storefront with green lit up store sign reading "Bobby's Hobby Shop" on left window and "Southwest Clock Camera Clinic" painted in orange on the left window.

Artwork Details

Medium

Oil on Canvas

Context

In Two O’Clock Sunday Afternoon, a work made towards the end of her career, the influence of the urban realist school of painting can still be seen in the deep vibrant greens of the store front and signage in its windows. While the work maintains a strong adherence to representational values the loose and expressive qualities of the brushstrokes give room for Barton to express a sense of subjectivity in the experience of her milieu. Similarly to her Urban Realist educators Barton infuses the everyday with a sense of subjectivity and bold strokes of color which draw the eye inwards towards the store front’s alcove with the contrasting uses of electric green and reds. Moreover, the vantage point is situated at a skewed angle where we can clearly feel the presence of the artist’s body in the space that she is depicting. Barton would continue to live and paint in Chicago for the rest of her life.

Acquisition

Accession

2017.15-17

Source or Donor

Arthur D. James

Acquisition Method

Gift

Credit Line

Gift of Arthur D. James

Made/Created

Artist

Barton, Macena Alberta

Date made

1975

Ethnography

Notes

North America US

Lexicon

Getty AAT

Concept

urban, culture-related concepts, Contemporary Realism

Hierarchy Name

Associated Concepts (hierarchy name)

Facet

Associated Concepts Facet

LOC Thesaurus for Graphic Materials

Store windows, Storefronts, Urban life

Dimensions

Dimension Description

overall

Width

32 in

Length

24 in