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Inside a Weekend Cabin
painting

Caulfield, Patrick Joseph
Europe, United Kingdom, England
1969

1972.36

oil paint/oil paint
274.4 x 183 cm

More Details

Inside a Weekend Cabin 1969
Patrick Caulfield b.1936
Oil and acrylic on canvas

Caulfield's subjects seem very simple and specific,
bold in design and meticulously painted,
Yet they are also stereotypes, carefully selected
to make subversive observations on the way we live.

This is one of two early interiors from the 1960s
exotic in theme, but deliberately banal in presentation.
The subject is from a 1930s interior design magazine.
Apparently a retreat from the routine of daily life,
this idyllic log cabin is suffused with irony.

Referring to the white tablecloth, painted in acrylic
to keep its whiteness for longer, the artist wrote:
This is the object introduced into the interior
for the "weekend". It is emphasised in the painting.
Its reflected light is real rather than being an area
painted to represent the effect of light...

The use of perspective to give an illusion of depth
and the black linear description of form
contradict the abstract flatness of the background.

Gift of the Contemporary Art Society 1972.36