Broken Tree
Artist:
Everett Franklin Spruce
(American, 1908 - 2002)
Date: 1950
Place made:United States
General region:North and Central America
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions:
30 x 36 in. (76.2 x 91.4 cm)
Credit Line: San Antonio Museum of Art, purchased with funds provided by The Kelso Endowment for Texas Art
Object number: 2016.1
Signed: Signed, lower right: Spruce
Copyright: © Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas
Provenance: Private collection; consigned to David Dike Fine Art, 23 January 2016
Exhibition History: Umlauf Sculpture Garden & Museum, Austin, Texas, Modernist: Seven University of Texas Legacies (1938-1963), 2004;
Martin Museum of Art, Baylor University, Waco, Texas, The Paintings of Everett Spruce, 1997;
Martin Museum of Art, Baylor University, Waco, Texas, Texas Modern: The Rediscovery of Early Texas Abstraction (1935-1965), 2007
Published References
Katie Robsin Edwards, Midcentury Modern Art in Texas (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2014), 146-147
Label Text
Bold colors and expressive brushstrokes dominate this abstracted Texas landscape. The limbs of the large tree in the foreground, as well as the high horizon line behind them, divide the composition into interlocking, geometric shapes. At the time Everett Spruce created this painting, his style was changing. He was exploring the different ways that choices regarding color, paint handling, and form affected the interpretation of an otherwise recognizable landscape.
Spruce was a member of the Dallas Nine, a group of North Texas artists who came to widespread prominence during the 1936 Texas Centennial Exposition. His work was featured in several important national exhibitions, including the First National Exhibition of American Art at Rockefeller Center in 1936. “Spruce is a true expressionist,” wrote art critic Gibson Danes in 1944. “Each canvas demands a particular solution, a new-born structure, a fresh format of color, pattern and texture.” Spruce also taught studio art for over thirty years at the University of Texas at Austin.
(William Rudolph, 2016)
Spruce was a member of the Dallas Nine, a group of North Texas artists who came to widespread prominence during the 1936 Texas Centennial Exposition. His work was featured in several important national exhibitions, including the First National Exhibition of American Art at Rockefeller Center in 1936. “Spruce is a true expressionist,” wrote art critic Gibson Danes in 1944. “Each canvas demands a particular solution, a new-born structure, a fresh format of color, pattern and texture.” Spruce also taught studio art for over thirty years at the University of Texas at Austin.
(William Rudolph, 2016)
On view
In Collection(s)
The San Antonio Museum of Art is in the process of digitizing its permanent collection. This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect SAMA's complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of such records is ongoing.
This resource has been made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the Human Endeavor.
