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LEON GOLUB
(American, born 1922)
Columnar Head, 1958
Lacquer and oil on canvas
45 1/8 x 48 1/2”
Gift of Debra and Robert Mayer from the Robert B. Mayer Memorial Loan Collection 1984.6.1

Born in Chicago, American painter Leon Golub earned a B.A. in Art History from the University of Chicago. After World War II, during which time he served in the United States Army, Golub studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, from which he received a B.F.A. in 1949 and an M.F.A. in 1950. His earliest paintings focused on the Holocaust and the atomic bombings at Hiroshima and Nagasaki; these works reflect his experiences during the War and embody his dedication to depicting the subject of political power and its abuses. In an era dominated by the purist, ‘art for art’s sake’ rigor of Abstract Expressionism, Golub chose instead to focus on the human form. Inspired by the flawed grandeur of antique art, he began a series of colossal heads, including Columnar Head. Distant and unfeeling, these larger than life heads have blank eyes that endlessly stare over and beyond—and never at—the viewer.

Some of his best-known later works include his Gigantomachy series of 1965-68, which includes classicized nude figures entangled in ferocious battle, his Vietnam series of 1972-74, and Mercenaries, Interrogations, and Riots, three series that further examine victims and their victimizers. Golub’s disjointed and agonized figures are mirrored in the brutal rawness of his painted surfaces—pitted, scraped, and rough with thick patches of paint.