Accession Number
1954/2.39

Title
Cactus

Artist(s)
Graham Sutherland

Artist Nationality
British (modern)

Object Creation Date
1950

Medium & Support
oil on canvas

Dimensions
23 x 20 1/4 in. (58.4 x 51.3 cm);23 x 20 1/4 in. (58.4 x 51.3 cm);32 3/16 x 39 1/2 x 2 5/16 in. (81.6 x 100.33 x 5.72 cm)

Credit Line
Museum Purchase

Label copy
March 28, 2009
The starting point of Sutherland’s paintings is often a natural found object, such as a tree root or a fragment of a bush, isolated from its surroundings and presented close up. With their strange and mysterious growths at the top and more conventional sculptural bottoms, figures like Cactus were referred to by Sutherland as “monuments and presences.” “The forms,” he explained, “are based on principles of organic growth,” following their own unruly and proliferating nature. In a statement on his own process, the artist was reluctant to explain too much: “if one duty of painting is to explain the essence of things and emotions,” he said, “may it not be sometimes wise for the spectator simply to accept?”

Primary Object Classification
Painting

Primary Object Type
abstract

Additional Object Classification(s)
Painting

Collection Area
Modern and Contemporary

Rights
If you are interested in using an image for a publication, please visit http://umma.umich.edu/request-image for more information and to fill out the online Image Rights and Reproductions Request Form.

Keywords
Surrealism
Surrealist
abstraction
biomorphic abstraction
growth
modern and contemporary art
oil painting (technique)
still lifes