(Chicago, Illinois, 1924 - 1981, Chicago, Illinois)
1969-1970
Oil on canvas
66 x 43 1/2 in. (167.6 x 110.5 cm)
Collection of the Akron Art Museum
Gift of the estate of Seymour Rosofsky
2001.16
Seymour Rosofsky was a leading figure among the generation of Chicago artists who adopted figuration as a preferred style in the 1950s. A graduate of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Rosofsky asserted that these artists wanted to “portray a more humanistic quality—including the mystical, social and emotional aspects of life.” An admirer of Surrealist artists René Magritte and Max Ernst, Rosofsky addressed narrative themes with significant personal content in his work. 'Underwater' touches on one of Rosofsky’s favored subjects—the uncertain and sometimes unsettling voyage through life. By painting a woman’s head multiple times, suggesting her gentle fall into the water, he presents death—the final stage of life’s journey—as a mysterious but serene state.
signed lower left