November 22, 1963
Nathan Oliveira
American, 1928–2010
1963
A lithograph in which Nathan Oliveira conjures a ghostlike, nearly erased face to register and respond to the shock of the events of November 22, 1963.
A pale, almost featureless visage hovers inside a deep, navy circular halo on a brown ground, its smudged mouth and barely there eyes making the image feel uncanny and hollow.
Working between abstraction and figuration, Oliveira uses the smudged gestures of printmaking to transform a portrait into a vessel for collective trauma, expanding how mid‑century American artists could represent public memory.
Medium
Lithograph
Dimensions
composition and sheet: 22 5/16 × 18 1/8" (56.7 × 46.1 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Gift of Kleiner, Bell & Co.
Accession
1269.1967
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
