Ernest Trova
Ernest Trova (born February 19, 1927 in Clayton , St. Louis County , Missouri , USA , † March 8, 2009 in Richmond Heights (Missouri) , St. Louis County ) was an American painter , printmaker and sculptor and important representative the pop art and the new surrealism in the USA.
life and work
Ernest Tino Trova attended Clayton High School and St. Louis University High School. As an artist, Trova was a self-taught artist .
His interest in poetry led him to correspond with Ezra Pound , who was staying at St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington DC after World War II. Trova worked as a decorator and window designer .
Art collector Morton D. May bought one of his paintings and brought it to the Museum of Modern Art . Trova had his first solo show in 1947 and won first prize in an exhibition in Missouri at the City Art Museum (now: Saint Louis Art Museum ). Critics found one of his pictures, Roman Boy, to be provocative and a "sexually graphic work", which caused a minor scandal but brought him attention.
He began exhibiting his art in the early years at the Pace Gallery in Boston and New York City , which would later be considered "one of the most influential galleries in the world". Some of his early works were acquired by the collections of the Guggenheim Museum and the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, as well as the Saint Louis Art Museum in his hometown and the Tate Gallery in London .
His Falling Man series of works “about man in his imperfect way” from 1964 is one of his best known works. An armless human figure is depicted in sculptures, paintings and engravings. This figure was then used as a decorative object for commercial products. It is considered a typical product of Pop Art. Ernest Trova participated in the 4th documenta in Kassel in 1968 with some of his prints and four chrome figures from the Falling Man series .
Trova used classic American comic book characters to incorporate them into his art with echoes of surrealism. His later work also includes numerous abstract constructivist sculptures , some of them in an unusual chrome-plated bronze finish.
Literature and Sources
- Exhibition catalog for the IV. Documenta: IV. Documenta. International exhibition ; Catalog: Volume 1: (Painting and Sculpture); Volume 2: (Graphics / Objects); Kassel 1968
- Andrew Kagan, Ernest Trova, Complete Paintings , Trova Foundation & Harry N. Abrams, St. Louis, Mon. & New York 1978, ISBN 1-55660-199-9
- Kimpel, Harald / Stengel, Karin: documenta IV 1968 International Exhibition - A Photographic Reconstruction (series of publications from the documenta archive); Bremen 2007, ISBN 978-3-86108-524-9
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Trova, Ernest |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Trova, Ernest Tino |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American painter, sculptor, and printmaker |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 19, 1927 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Clayton , St. Louis County, Missouri |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 8, 2009 |
| Place of death | Richmond Heights, Missouri , St. Louis County, Missouri |