Images(2)

Man with Crossed Legs

DateJanuary 22-29, 1970

Artist/Maker Eddie Arning (1898 - 1993)

OriginAmerica, Texas, Austin

MediumOil pastel ("Cray-pas") on laid green paper.

DimensionsUnframed: 22 x 32in. (55.9 x 81.3cm) Framed: 30 1/4 x 39 7/8in. (76.8 x 101.3cm)

Credit LineGift of Dr. & Mrs. Alexander Sackton

Object number1985.201.1

DescriptionOutermost border is orange, followed by a medium blue inner one. Composition shows a man in black suit with outstretched arms and crossed legs near center; has pink skin, green ear and eye, dull orange feet (which look like shoes, but there is a black pair of shoes just beneath him). At left is a stylized tree or bush in black, with black, orange-veined leaves below it. Leafless brown tree or bush lays on ground at right. Black circles, dashes, bars, and squares of varying sizes fill much of background space. A long horizontally-oriented triangle of bright blue runs though picture above man's head, and above it are circles and elliptical shapes in bright pink. Above the latter is a horizontal band of brown.
Label TextIn this drawing Arning attempted to remain faithful to his source, a photograph of a man seated with legs crossed, arms held aloft, with a variegated landscape under a broad sky. Yet in the artist's interpretation, randomly dispersed natural forms were selected, transformed, and realigned into repeating, highly ordered patterns.
MarkingsIn pencil in script on the reverse is "Eddie Arning." In lower right corner on reverse is Sackton inventory no. "1286" in black ink.
ProvenanceIn 1970, the drawing was acquired directly from the artist by Dr. and Mrs. Alexander H. Sackton of Austin, Texas; in turn, the Sacktons donated the work to the Folk Art Center.