George Deem

An American Rug

Date:	1970
Medium:	Oil on canvas
Size inches:	50 1/2 x 39 1/2
Size cm:	128.3 x 100.3
Signature:	Signed and inscribed on the reverse.
Location:	Evansville Museum of Arts, Science, and History, Evansville, Indiana

Evansville Museum of Arts, Science, and History, Evansville, Indiana.Accession Number 1975.110

"May Wilson as a Rug" and "An American Rug" both use carpet shapes that are symmetrical only along the long axis, these are usually considered to be prayer rugs, with the prayer niche pointing towards Mecca. From a painting perspective, they are both wonderful paintings, but from a rug perspective I especially enjoy "An American Rug." It uses a border motif figure which flashes back and forth between what is border and what is ground. You also encounter some interesting conditions in the corners, this happens often in carpets and is always a challenge for the designers and weavers. (Christopher Andrews, letter to George Deem, March 4, 2007. Christopher Andrews: www.classicalcarpets.com/catalog1.htm)

An American Rug is one of the earliest large compositions in which Deem combined images from different periods and media. He combines George Caleb Bingham's quintessential nineteenth-century American genre painting Raftsmen Playing Cards (1847; Saint Louis Art Museum), with Jean Simon Chardin's Still Life with Teapot, Grapes, Chestnuts, & Pear (1764; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston) and an illustration from a popular American magazine within a border reminiscent of patterns used in decorative objects, such as rugs. In doing so, Deem has appropriated both form and content. (David Dearinger, exhibition wall text,George Deem: The Art of Art History, The Boston Athenaeum, April 11 - September 1, 2012).

Evansville Museum Accession Number 1975.110.B&W. photo in archive photo file. O.E. Nelson photo file no. 43261.

An American Rug is 50 1/2 inches high by 39 1/2 inches wide. It was painted in 1970.

An American Rug is one of a series of "rug" paintings, from 1969 and 1970. ... The color in An American Rug is explanatory of its title, as is the subject matter: the large central quotation of Caleb Bingham's "Raft Descending the Missouri" and the girl in the upper right is a public American image ... The reference here is a generic one, she is a Pepsi or Coca Cola Girl, a movie poster advertisement, any of the bright glossy girls from the 1940s that were to be seen in magazines, billboards etc when I was growing up. The still life in the opposite corner is not American, it's a Chardin still life, just because I like it there, and it looks so good there. (George Deem, letter to William Gumberts, October 22, 1975)

The Boston Athenaeum, Boston, Massachusetts

Exhibition date:	April 11 - September 1, 2012
Institution:	The Boston Athenaeum, Boston, Massachusetts
Works Shown:	A Stool, A Chair, and a Map An American Rug The Art of Painting, diptych Artist in His Studio, The (diptych) Ashcan School Bingham Ceiling Courbet Palette Deem Palette Deem Vermeer (Self-Portrait) Easel Painting Everybody's Schoolroom Extended Vermeer George Washington and His Portrait The Landscape Painter Manet Palette Modigliani Palette Profile Red Chair, The Sargent Vermeer School of Sargent School of Winslow Homer Self-Portrait (1992) Seven Vermeer Corners Studio Visit Vermeer Detail 2003 Vermeer's Map Woman with a Water Pitcher Yankee Vermeer Young Woman with a Water Pitcher, Again

Evansville Museum of Arts and Science, Evansville, Indiana

Exhibition date:

June 23 - August 5, 1979

Works Shown:

An American Rug Artist in His Studio, The (diptych) Caravaggio Saint Matthew, The Caravaggio Saint Matthew, The (Glazing Chart Color Study) Composition in Red and Black (Rubens Vermeer) Girl Before a Mirror (Picasso/Vermeer) Girl with Red Hat Off (Portrait of Essie Borden) Glass Bouquet Guitar and Bottle: Picasso 1919-Deem 1979 Green Vermeer Hollywood Van Gogh MacDowell Colony Rita Vermeer Schoolroom 1979 Van Gogh's Bedroom at Arles Woman in Green with Vermeer's Lacemaker