Combat

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Combat

1945

American, 1917-1991

Pickens watched as poverty and oppression robbed people of their humanity, and found that the only means to convey his outrage and shake others out of their complacency was to paint sardonic allegories on humankind’s capacity for cruelty. Here his grotesque figures represent not just the brutality of individuals toward others, but they personify fascist governments and the horrors of world war as well.

Tempera on board

13 3/8 x 9 1/2 in. (34 x 24.2 cm)

Gift of the Estate of Mark Tobey

87.28

Provenance: [Curt Valentin Gallery, New York]; Mark Tobey, Seattle, Washington, and Basel, Switzerland; his estate, from the contents of his Seattle studio, with Seafirst Bank,Seattle; to Seattle Art Museum by 1982

Not currently on view

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