Object Details
- Exhibition Label
- The radiant light at Russell’s Corners forms the center of the mysterious world Ault painted there. His wife Louise chose a quotation from the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche to describe her husband: “Unless there be chaos within, no dancing star is born.”
- To Make a World: George Ault and 1940s America, 2011
- Luce Center Label
- George Ault made a series of paintings of Russell's Corners in Woodstock, New York. These images of lonely farm buildings symbolized traditional farm life and reflected Ault's desire to isolate himself from others (Louise Ault, Artist in Woodstock, 1978). He often incorporated religious imagery into his works, and here, a single bright light marks the center of a cross formed by the power lines (Lubowsky, George Ault, 1988). But the bleak landscape and vast expanse of darkness threaten to overwhelm, and this painting perhaps reflects the artist's depressed state of mind.
- Data Source
- Smithsonian American Art Museum
- Artist
- George Ault, born Cleveland, OH 1891-died Woodstock, NY 1948
- Date
- 1946
- Credit Line
- Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Lawrence
- Medium
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 19 5/8 x 25 in. (49.9 x 63.4 cm)
- Type
- Painting
