Stove (Schoolroom)

Date:	1985
Medium:	Oil on canvas
Size inches:	22 x 22
Size cm:	55.9 x 55.9
Signature:	Signed and dated lower right and on the reverse
Location:	Private Collection, Indianapolis, Indiana

 

To turn to words, there is the story "Volodya," whose title is Mayakovsky's nickname. It's a depressing story of a poor family surviving on minimal homegrown food and of rudimentary schooling where the children obey, without protest, rules that make no sense to them. The painting, "Stove," depicts a shabby school room, such as the one described in "Volodya," with some twelve unoccupied desks aligned with the wall, a worn floor, glaring unpleasant light and a woman teacher sitting stiffly at a desk far back, looking blank ahead. In the center a huge round stove gives no warmth at all.
Ulla Dydo, Introduction, Let George Do It, pages 9-10

Inscribed on the reverse