Emergency Room
Colescott, Robert H.
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Date
1989Description
Using a rich palette and articulated brush strokes, Colescott has depicted a chaotic emergency room, which he considers to be "a vivid allegory for the whole country." Since the 1960s, Colescott has addressed social issues, particularly racial stereotypes, through narrative figuration. This scene is crowded with caricatured figures, including a priest holding a decapitated head, a skeleton receiving a blood transfusion, a gang of knife–wielding apes, and a doctor smoking as he administers an injection. The women in the painting are subject to violence and harassment, and one large, recumbent, objectlike woman in the background has bricks for flesh, skeletons for eyes, and factory smoke for hair. full view
Type of Work
PaintingSubject
Allegory, Emergency rooms, Chaos, Painting, American --20th century, Art, Modern --20th century, African Americans in art
Rights
Rights Statement
Licensed for educational and research use by the MIT community only
Item is Part of
134565