George Tooker: A Retrospective

Jan. 30-April 5, $15, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 128 N. Broad St., 215-972-7600, pafa.org.

by A.D. Amorosi

Visual Art

Magical realism has no better friend than George Tooker Jr. Critics might ignore the 88-year-old artist and his lushly luminous narratives; audiences might not know to drive hurriedly to the mix of dry, humorous mirth and socially relevant message which he first made notable in the '50s with works like The Subway and Government Bureau. There's a misted-over quality to his best early work — dreamy cloud-colors that inhabit his figurative paintings as if the characters had been filled with helium. But what drove him to the next level was his interest in politically motivated Mexican painters such as José Clemente Orozco, resulting in Tooker's The Waiting Room (pictured) and Dark Angel — staunch yet subtle commentaries on plight, sorrow, fatigue. Those critics who first compared him to Hopper, Cadmus and the now-late Andrew Wyeth, then later lumped him in with abstract expressionists like Pollock, have missed the point. There was nothing abstract about his narratives. This first museum retrospective of his work in 30 years ought to bring greater understanding.

Jan. 30-April 5, $15, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 128 N. Broad St., 215-972-7600, pafa.org.