Space Activity (Actividad espacial)

Philip C. Curtis, American, 1907 - 2000

1946

painting

tempera on paper

Gift of the Philip C. Curtis Restated Trust U/A/D April 7, 1994

2001.15

Philip C. Curtis Restated Trust U/A/D April 7, 1994

Modern

No

One of Arizona’s most notable artists, Phillip Curtis is best known for his imaginative paintings set within a Sonoran Desert dreamscape. During the 1940s, Curtis produced a series of abstractions unlike any of his previous work. Space Activity demonstrates his skill with working in non-representational subjects. Curtis first came to Arizona in 1937 to head the Phoenix Federal Art Center, a Works Progress Administration funded New Deal project that later became the Phoenix Art Museum. He left Arizona in 1939 and continued to pursue other government-funded projects through World War II. He returned permanently to Arizona in 1947.