Life of a Sportsman

Date1989-90

Maker Roy De Forest American, 1930 - 2007

Label TextRejecting the designation of “funk art,” a group of Northern California artists wryly adopted the term “nut art” in 1969 to describe their work. Roy De Forest—who grew up in Yakima and spent most of his career in Northern California—described nut art as a “squirrel in the forests of visual delights.” He continued, “Nut art really deals with nothing much. It has to do with phantasmagoric ideas—fantasies.” De Forest’s embrace of nonsensical humor and fantasy for its own sake is evident in his absurdist, over-the-top paintings, populated with mythical humans and animals, particularly the dogs who the artist adopted as his alter ego.

Object number2002.44

Photo CreditPhoto: Scott Leen

Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Poke in the Eye: Art of the West Coast Counterculture, June 21 - September 2, 2024.

Credit LineGift of The Persis Corporation

Dimensions108 x 140 x 10 in. (274.3 x 355.6 x 25.4 cm), framed

MediumAcrylic on canvas mounted to wood