Images(2)

We Didn't Need To Talk

DateDecember 17, 1972-January 20, 1973

Artist/Maker Eddie Arning (1898 - 1993)

OriginAmerica, Texas, Austin

MediumOil pastel ("Cray-pas") on wove orange paper.

DimensionsUnframed: 22 x 32in. (55.9 x 81.3cm) Framed: 30 1/4 x 39 3/4 x 3/4in. (76.8 x 101 x 1.9cm)

Credit LineGift of Dr. & Mrs. Alexander Sackton

Object number1984.201.8

DescriptionBlack outer border approximately 1 1/8" wide encloses whole, followed by brown inner border approximatley 3/4" wide. Two male figures with hands crossed over laps sit on green ground and lean against trunk of yellow and brown tree. A gun leans agains the tree between them, and above the gun, a black and white bird with red feet and bill is on trunk. Black oval shapes dangle from the bare limbs of the tree. A second gun stretches out toward the left from the figures. Three yellow animals with black eyes, muzzles, and feet, appear at left; one beneath the second gun, one vertically in the LL corner, and one diagonally above and to the right of the gun. Bright blue background above ground. Smaller brown trees (5) appear behind large one. Both male figures wear gray caps and jackets, brown pants, and black footwear, one in boots and the other in shoes.

The modern 1 1/4-inch flat, black-painted frame was added by AARFAC after acquisition.
Label TextAn important visual element here is the vivid contrast between the bright yellow of the squirrels and the tree trunk and the electric blue of the background. Compared with the source of inspiration, Arning's drawing shows the animals greatly enlarged in relation to the other pictorial elements; the airborne squirrel is a space-filling addition of the artist's. Treatment of the squirrels' feet and men's hands as flat, spatulate shapes with individually delineated digits is a stylization that appears repeatedly in Arning's drawings.
Arning's source of inspiration was a two-color rendering by artist Gary Van Ilg that appeared on the reverse of the front cover of HOME LIFE: A CHRISTIAN FAMILY MAGAZINE, XXVII (December 1972). The rendering bore the same title as Arning's work, and it illustrated the story called "Take a Boy Along," which began on p. 17.
InscribedIn pencil in script on the reverse is, "Eddie, Arning." The inventory number "1810" appears on the reverse, as does the penciled number "32." To the left of center in the composition, in script, is: "we didn't/need to/talk."
ProvenanceAARFAC's donors, D/M Alexander Sackton, acquired this drawing directly from the artist.