White Nurse

Description

White Nurse provides a psychedelic road map to political conflict in the 1960s. At the center of the work, a dripping splash of red punctuates an image representing America’s perception of communism’s encroachment. Above it, the titular white nurse—a casualty of the nation’s military-industrial complex—is crucified by high-ranking officers from America and elsewhere in the name of money and religion. Peter Saul used grotesque and exaggerated caricatures to emphasize his distaste for the violence of the Vietnam War, the intensity of Cold War propaganda, and the rapid growth of militarized society.

White Nurse

Peter Saul

1965

Accession Number

30920

Medium

Oil pastel and colored crayons, and fiber-tipped and ball point pens, with graphite, on ivory wood pulp board

Dimensions

137.4 × 102 cm (54 1/8 × 40 3/16 in.)

Classification

crayon

Museum

The Art Institute of Chicago

Chicago, United States

Credit Line

Gift of Mrs. Lewis Manilow