Ernest Trova (USA 1927-2009) Kleurenzeefdruk 'At Pace' NY 1969

Ernest Trova (USA 1927-2009)

Kleurenlitografie 'At Pace' NY 1969

Afmetingen 73,5 x 81 cm.

Ernest Trova (February 19, 1927 – March 8, 2009) was a self-taught American Surrealist and Pop Art painter and sculptor. He is primarily known for his signature and extensive series of works featuring the "Falling Man" motif. Trova began as a painter, influenced by abstract expressionists like Willem de Kooning, and later moved into three-dimensional constructions and large-scale sculptures. His work is characterized by a blend of surrealism, pop art, and an interest in the relationship between technology and the human condition. This iconic motif, a standard, armless, often featureless male figure with a "pot-bellied" shape, became a representation of modern humanity's fallibility and the tension between balance and chaos. The figures were inspired partly by the mannequins he used in his early career as a department store window dresser. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Trova was widely recognized. His works were exhibited in major venues including the Whitney Annuals, three Venice Biennales, and Documenta 4 in Kassel, Germany. His art is held in the collections of major institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, the Guggenheim Museum, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Tate. Trova lived his entire life in the St. Louis, Missouri area. He made a foundational gift of 40 of his artworks in 1976, which led to the establishment of the Laumeier Sculpture Park in St. Louis County, where many of his large-scale steel sculptures are still on display. Despite a period of significant critical and commercial success, his profile "went into decline" in the mid-1980s. He continued to work until his death in 2009.