Garden Scene

Two women are depicted holding one another, one nude and the other clothed. While the brushstrokes are liberated and cloud the painting, it is obvious there are another two figures in the background observing these women. This addition to the work creates depth and mystery to the subject matter. The lack of color in the print makes the scene appear even more murky and inscrutable. The figures are rendered in a way that is slightly abstracted, yet it is clear to the viewer that they are women. The expressions on the women’s faces are non-expressive and neither one is completely seen by the viewer. The effect is to evoke more allegorical garden scenes, if not Edenic then an encounter between nature and culture.

Robert Moir was born on 7 Jan. 1917 in Chicago, Illinois. He was a sculptor and lithographer, formally trained at the Art Institute of Chicago, Columbia University, New York University and the Art Students League of New York. Moir worked in the FAP’s Graphic Art Division, where he developed an emotive, expressionist style inflected with abstraction. As a New York Times reviewer wrote of a solo sculpture show, its first impression was “one of energy contained with difficulty within the writing forms. Figure themes are presented in a semi-abstract manner, but their inspiration is emotional rather than purely formal” (Preston). A similar claim might be made of his earlier prints. Moir’s career came to a halt during the 1940s when he was drafted for WWII, then resumed with gallery shows in New York during the 1950s. His sculptures were featured at successive Whitney Bienniels between 1951-56, including Cumulus (1951), The Expanding Universe II (1953), and Desire (1956). His sculpture Mother and Child (1950) is held at the Whitney Museum of American Art. He died on 11 Feb 1981. 14 graphic works at Art Institute of Chicago. 6 works at Philadelphia Museum of Art. 3 works at Smithsonian American Art Museum.