Dance Marathon
Primary
Philip Evergood
(New York, New York, 1901–Southbury, Connecticut, 1973)
NationalityAmerican, North America
Date1934
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsSight: 60 1/16 × 40 1/16 in. (152.6 × 101.7 cm)
Framed: 67 1/2 × 47 1/2 × 2 in. (171.5 × 120.7 × 5.1 cm)
Framed: 67 1/2 × 47 1/2 × 2 in. (171.5 × 120.7 × 5.1 cm)
Credit LineBlanton Museum of Art, The University of Texas at Austin, Gift of Mari and James A. Michener, 1991.210
Keywords
Rights Statement
Collection AreaModern and Contemporary Art
Object number1991.210
On View
On viewLocations
- exhibition BMA, Gallery, B2 - Schweitzer Gallery
Collection Highlight
An activist as well as an artist, Philip Evergood was committed to creating art that exposed social injustice. Dance Marathon depicts a phenomenon that swept the United States during the Great Depression, in which couples competed for a cash prize by dancing for as long as possible. In this complex and luridly colored painting, Evergood combines realistic details, such as the exhausted couples and crude prize announcements, with symbols, like the skeletal hand, that convey his attitude toward the dismal spectacle. Evergood’s work of social critique, while rooted in the Depression, is a powerful reminder of the timelessness of human desperation and cruelty.
Exhibitions
