Project Description

Ernest Trova was a self-trained American surrealist, pop art painter, and sculptor. Trova’s most successful image was his Falling Man series which he created in both two and three dimensional media. Synthesizing post-painterly abstraction with own his own ancient brand of classicism, Trova arrived at a result that attracted immense interest. Images and sculptures of a single Falling Man could project playful gravity, while multiple Falling Man figures configured menacingly futuristic landscapes. Art Deco and Machine Age sensibilities that were the high style of Trova’s youth come together in Falling Man. Matthew Strauss, a personal friend of Trova, said that “Falling Man was to Trova what Mickey Mouse had been to Disney: a character capable of infinite physical and narrative flexibility, undergoing constant displacement and redefinition without losing its essence.” Trova often spoke of the Falling Man series as a single work-in-progress, with each work of art acting as one frame in a lengthy film.

-Susan Bonta, Class of 2018

Object Details

Ernest Trova (American, 1927-2009)
20th Century
2007.02.44
28" x 28"
Silkscreen
Gift of Gerald & Shelly Elliott