The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of March 24, 2024

Rock at Sea

Rock at Sea

1920–1922
(American, 1891–1982)
Unframed: 88.9 x 104.2 cm (35 x 41 in.)

Did You Know?

Jonson admired this composition, recycling it years later for a mountainous New Mexico landscape painting.

Description

The radically stylized tendencies in Rock at Sea were motivated by Jonson’s earlier work as an avant-garde scenic and lighting designer for the esteemed Chicago Little Theatre. Inspired by the jagged coast of Ogunquit, Maine, the painting’s visionary rendering of nature embodies the artist’s long-standing interest in communicating mystical concepts. Later, Jonson would move to Albuquerque, New Mexico, and co-found the Transcendental Painting Group, an association of artists dedicated to expressing the imaginative and spiritual realms through abstract art.
  • 1922-1978
    The artist
    1978-2002
    Edward and Bettie Moran, Alameda, NM
    2002
    (Bob Copland, Santa Fe, NM)
    2002-by 2008
    Private collector, ME
    by 2008-2009
    (Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Inc., New York, NY)
    2009-
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Exhibition of Paintings by Raymond Jonson: March 24 to April 20, 1924. Omaha: Omaha Society of Fine Arts, 1924.
    "Museum Notes." The Evening Bee: Omaha (Omaha, NE), March 28, 1924.
    An Exhibit of Paintings by Raymond Jonson. Kansas City: The Kansas City Art Institute, 1924. Mentioned: p. 3
    "Acquisitions Highlights." Cleveland Art 49 (November 2009). Mentioned: p. 11; Reproduced: p. 11
    Mann, Griffith C. "Acquisitions 2009." Cleveland Art 50 (March/April 2010). Mentioned: p. 17-18; Reproduced: p. 17
    Litt, Steven. "Close Up: Painter's Interest in Abstraction Leaves Him Teetering at the Edge," The Plain Dealer, February 12, 2012. Mentioned: E5; Reproduced: E5
    Nasgaard, Roald, Gwendolyn Owens, and Lawren Harris. Higher States: Lawren Harris and His American Contemporaries. Kleinburg, Ontario: McMichael Canadian Art Collection, 2017. Mentioned: p. 94; Reproduced: p. 14-15
    Hartel, Herbert R. Raymond Jonson and the Spiritual in Modernist and Abstract Painting. New York and London: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2018. Mentioned: p. 36-38; Reproduced: p. 37
    Marshall, Jennifer Jane. "Routes to Modernism: 1913-1943." In Art in Chicago: A History from the Fire to Now. Maggie Taft and Robert Cozzolino, editors. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2018. Reproduced; p. 64
    Raymond Jonson Papers, 1910-1964. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Microfilm. Mentioned: RJ-8, frames 6198-6200, RJ-10, frame 7122
  • Higher States: Lawren Harris and His American Contemporaries. McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Kleinburg, Canada (organizer) (February 4-September 4, 2017); Glenbow Museum, Calgary, Canada (October 7, 2017-January 7, 2018).
    Exhibition of Paintings by Raymond Jonson. Omaha Society of Fine Arts, Public Library Galleries, Omaha (March 24-April 20, 1924).
    An Exhibit of Paintings by Raymond Jonson. Kansas City Art Institute, Kansas City (May 1-May 31, 1924).
  • {{cite web|title=Rock at Sea|url=false|author=Raymond Jonson|year=1920–1922|access-date=24 March 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2009.269