Ernest Tino Trova Figurative Paintings
American
Known for his Falling Man series in abstract figural sculpture, he created hard-edge images that brought him widespread attention because they seem to strike a chord of empathy with viewers who recognized themselves as human beings challenged by a technological society. Also, they are the only creatures aware of their mortality. He is considered highly innovative because of his successful combining of technological methods to create his art.
Interpretation as to overall meanings vary with some thinking that it refers to the fall of man in the religious sense and others seeing it as a commentary on the tragic mechanization of society that reduces human beings. Trova has said that "falling" refers to the fact that man moves from one position to the next in an eventual fall to inevitable oblivion" (Kultermann 11).
He has lived his entire life in St. Louis, Missouri although his reputation is nationwide. He did not think it necessary to study art because he believed in his own instincts, although he drew from a variety of sources including figurative painters such as Francis Bacon, Jean Dubuffet, and Willem DeKooning.
The Falling Man series resulted from a unique offer from the Famous-Barr Department Store in St. Louis, where he had worked as a window decorator in his twenties. Store personnel told him that in exchange for creating a series of works to exhibit at the city's 1964 bicentennial celebration, he could have unlimited access to the store's materials and workers. The store's display department was a great setting for him to be creative with his interest in Pop Art, and this project gave him assembly-line assistance of carpenters, electricians, and painters.
The result was that all images had Falling Man figures, and this included paintings, assemblages, collages, and movable sculpture, both electronic and hand driven. After the Bi-centennial, many of the pieces were then shipped to the Pace Gallery in New York City and received critical acclaim.
Of his technique, he has explained that he first creates a cardboard model and then works from there, often making it life size. He is much more interested in variations of shape and form rather than color.
Ernest Tino Trova died at his home in Richmond Heights, near St. Louis, Missouri on March 8, 2009 at the age of 82. (Obituary.New York Times March 13, 2009.)1
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Artist: Ernest Tino Trova
Figurative Abstract
By Ernest Tino Trova
Located in Missouri, MO
Ernest Tino Trova
"Figurative Abstract" 1965
Oil on Canvas
approx 17 x 12.5 inches
Signed and Dated Lower Right
Known for his Falling Man series in abstract figural sculpture, he cr...
Category
1960s American Modern Ernest Tino Trova Figurative Paintings
Materials
Canvas, Oil
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Rand's work as a painter and muralist is held in the collections of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Bibliothèque Nationale de France in Paris, and the Tel Aviv Museum of Art.
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His first exhibition was in 1966, at the Tibor de Nagy Gallery in New York. He has since had over 100 solo exhibitions, and his work has been included in over 200 group exhibitions.
He is currently Presidential Professor of Art at Brooklyn College which granted him the Award for Excellence in Creative Achievement in 2016. Before joining Brooklyn College, Rand was the chair of the Department of Visual Arts at Columbia University.
The Italian Academy For Advanced Studies in America at Columbia University presented him with The Siena Prize in 1995. He was awarded a Guggenheim Foundation Foundation Fellowship in 1999 and was made a Laureate of the National Foundation for Jewish Culture, which awarded him the Achievement Medal for Contributions in the Visual Arts. In 2002 he received the Presidential Award for Excellence in Teaching from Columbia University.
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Archie Rand’s earliest major works are “The Letter Paintings” (or “The Jazz Paintings”) (1968–71), a radically positioned series of technically inventive, mural-sized canvases. The Letter Paintings, by incorporating the names of mainly male and female African-American musicians, undermined prevailing aesthetic categories by conflating many contemporary movements including Conceptual Art, Color Field, Pattern and Decoration, diary entry and social commentary.
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In an article on a 2011 exhibition of Rand's "Had Gadya" series, David Kaufmann wrote:
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"The 613"
In 2015 Blue Rider/Penguin/Random House published The 613, allotting one color plate per page for each of the 614 units in the painting. The Wall Street Journal labeled The 613 as “dynamic…remarkable…thrilling” The New York Times selected the book as “Editors' Choice” and praised it in two separate reviews calling it “wonderfully garish” and declaring that “nothing prepared the art world for 'The 613.'
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In 2016 Rand showed two bodies of work that were done in Italy, “La Certosa Di Pontignano, 1995” and “Mount Etna, 2005,” at The Interchurch Center Galleries, New York. From 2016 to 2017 he served as the Curator and Juror for the Governor of Wyoming’s Capitol Arts Exhibition at The Wyoming State Museum, Cheyenne, WY.
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Ernest Tino Trova figurative paintings for sale on 1stDibs.
Find a wide variety of authentic Ernest Tino Trova figurative paintings available for sale on 1stDibs. If you’re browsing the collection of figurative paintings to introduce a pop of color in a neutral corner of your living room or bedroom, you can find work that includes elements of purple and other colors. You can also browse by medium to find art by Ernest Tino Trova in canvas, fabric, oil paint and more. Much of the original work by this artist or collective was created during the 1960s and is mostly associated with the modern style. Not every interior allows for large Ernest Tino Trova figurative paintings, so small editions measuring 13 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Clarence Holbrook Carter, Byron Browne, and Donald Stacy.