A great painter …

… The Catholic Art of George Tooker - The Catholic Thing. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Tooker never complained about neglect. He was too absorbed by his own contrarian passions. When other young painters followed Mark Rothko and Jackson Pollock, Tooker studied the Italian Renaissance master Piero della Francesca. When the leading critics praised abstract formalism, Tooker emphasized content. His central concern was never style. It was the human condition.

I can’t remember when I first encountered Tooker’s paintings, but for me it was love at first sight. Here was a painter who saw the world as it is and didn’t play games.