Size: 47 x 92.7 cm
Medium - Tempera on Composition Board
Origin: USA
Currently displayed - At the Whitney
Museum of American Art
The Subway is the best known of the figurative
paintings George Tooker made in response to the social injustices and isolation
of postwar urban society. The central female figure is shown looking anxiously to her
right and clutching her abdomen, surrounded by a series of anonymous, somewhat
sinister looking figures. In The Subway, Tooker created several vanishing
points and sophisticated modeling to create an imagined world that is presented
in a familiar urban setting. While the central figure wears a red dress, the surrounding
figures are all shown in varying shades of beige, brown and blue. The figures
are almost all men. Each figure appears psychologically estranged, despite being
physically close to the others at the station.
This painting illuminates the feeling of isolation and
alienation of modern, urban life, which is a theme that is omnipresent. The
background figures seem to look at the central woman from the corners of their
eyes or from around corners, adding an element of paranoia to the painting. The
maze-like depiction of the subway adds to this sentiment, presenting it almost
as a complex prison in which the central figure is trapped.
The Subway thus becomes a metaphor for the
imprisonment of urban society, to which we are all subject. Gender identity and
the risks associated with femininity are both central to this piece. American
art historian Michael Brooks states that the color contrasts between the male
and female figures "echo the traditional symbols of passion and sanctity,
and the woman uses her hand to protect her womb against the threatening
messages of the men around her." The woman is thus pictured as sexualized
and vulnerable - insulated and fearful in public amidst the threatening male
influences around her. As Tooker remarked, he chose the subway as the setting for
this painting because it represented "a denial of the senses and a
negation of life itself."
