Victory & Defeat :  Victory & Defeat

Legendary Buffalo Bills running back Thurman Thomas and artist Patti Thomas (“The Ghost”) have been married for more than three decades. Together they connect the trials and triumphs of artists in the Buffalo AKG’s collection with the ups and downs of the athletic world.
 

Featured voices: 
• Thurman Thomas, former Buffalo Bills running back
• Patti Thomas, artist “The Ghost” 

Abstract painting entitled "Scrimmage" featuring a group of people in motion.

Martin Wong

American, 1946-1999

Liberty Mourning the Death of Her Sister-Beijing, 1989

Tondo: acrylic on canvas
72 x 72 inches (182.9 x 182.9 cm)
George B. and Jenny R. Mathews Fund, 2014
2014:24

© Martin Wong 
 

Statue of Liberty painted as if she were made of bricks, leaning against the side of a brick building with a cityscape behind her, and she is leaning with her hand holding her head in a sorrowful way

Robert Colescott

Feeling His Oats, 1988

Acrylic on canvas
90 x 114 inches (228.6 x 289.6 cm)
Sarah Norton Goodyear Fund, 2000
(2000:11)

© Estate of Robert Colescott

Painted in loud colors such as vibrant reds and yellow, this painting depicts an African American man who seems to be enjoying the luxurious life. He is surrounded by his material possessions, such as a car and money and he is accompanied by stereotyped caricatures of the black athlete and a “Mammy” figure as well as the Quaker Oats man and Superman who is flying in the sky far behind everyone else in the painting.

Vincent Van Gogh

Dutch, active in France, 1853-1890

La maison de La Crau (The Old Mill), 1888

Oil on canvas
25 1/2 x 21 1/4 inches (64.8 x 53.9 cm)
Bequest of A. Conger Goodyear, 1966
1966:9.22

Impressionist painting of an old mill in front of hills and with greenery and a stream in front

James Ensor

Belgian, 1860-1949

Le feu d'artifice (Fireworks), 1887

Oil and encaustic on canvas
40 1/4 x 44 1/4 inches (102.2 x 112.4 cm)
George B. and Jenny R. Mathews Fund, 1970
1970:9

Oil painting of a blue and orange horizon and dark ground with a large yellow and orange firework exploding in the center of the piece

Elaine de Kooning

American, 1918-1989

 

Scrimmage, 1953

Oil on canvas
25 x 36 inches (63.5 x 91.4 cm)
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. David K. Anderson to The Martha Jackson Collection at the Buffalo AKG Art Museum, 1974
1974:8.16

© Elaine de Kooning Trust

Abstract expressionist style painting depicting some sort of athletic scrimmage amongst a group of several men in motion, with neutrals shades and red and white throughout

Jackson Pollock

American, 1912-1956

Convergence, 1952

Oil on canvas
 93 1/2 x 155 inches (237.5 x 393.7 cm)
Gift of Seymour H. Knox, Jr., 1956
K1956:7

© Pollock-Krasner Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Abstract expressionist painting that resembles splatter paint with the background layer being black and a neutral beige with red, yellow, blue, and white

Jehan Georges Vibert

French, 1840-1902

The Marvelous Sauce, ca. 1890

Oil on wood panel 
25 3/16 x 31 15/16 inches (64 x 81.1 cm)
Bequest of Elisabeth H. Gates, 1899
1899:3.14

Painting of a kitchen and a man in a red robe and white apron with a red cap holds a sauce pan and spoon and is showing his work to another white man who is a bit younger and is wearing a chef's hat and white chef's clothing and blue pants

Winslow Homer

American, 1836-1910

Croquet Players, 1865

Oil on canvas
16 x 26 inches (40.6 x 66 cm)
Charles Clifton and James G. Forsyth Funds, 1941
1941:11
 

On a patch of grass with trees in the background, a group of four women and two men dressed in victorian style dresses and suits play croquet

William Hogarth

British, 1697-1764

The Lady's Last Stake, 1759

Oil on canvas
36 x 41 1/2 inches (91.4 x 105.4 cm)
Gift of Seymour H. Knox, Jr., 1945
1945:2.1

In a well furnished room, an aristocratic white woman dressed in a dramatic yellow dress sits near a fire, with her hand on a decorative painting on a stand and her other hand against her face as she listens to a soldier in a red uniform speak to her closely. There is also a white dog hidden under a table

Ernst Barlach

German, 1870-1938

Der Rächer (The Avenger), 1914 (cast executed after World War II)

17 x 22 7/8 x 8 3/4 inches (43.2 x 58.1 x 22.2 cm)
Charles Clifton Fund, 1961
1961:2

Bronze statue of a man in motion (his cloak blows behind him) as he wields a weapon over his shoulder. The background of the image is black.