Nothing To Do
ClassificationsPaintings-watercolors
Artist
Emil Kosa Jr.
(American, 1903 - 1968)
Date1932-1939
Place DepictedLos Angeles, California, United States, North America
Made AtCalifornia, United States, North America
MediumWatercolor on paper
DimensionsApproximately: 21 × 29 in. (53.3 × 73.7 cm)
Framed: 30 5/8 × 38 5/8 × 2 1/4 in. (77.8 × 98.1 × 5.7 cm)
Framed: 30 5/8 × 38 5/8 × 2 1/4 in. (77.8 × 98.1 × 5.7 cm)
Credit LineAnn and Bill Cullen Memorial Collection
Object number2018.6.15
DescriptionEmil Kosa Jr. began taking art classes at a young age and he decided to pursue art as a profession in his late teens. Kosa was a mural artist and produced decorative art for churches and auditoriums while taking on portrait commissions. In the 1930s, with encouragement from Millard Sheets, Kosa began to pursue national reputation as a California watercolor artist.This painting is a glimpse of ordinary life that is a common theme in both Depression Era art and California Scene paintings. The setting is Plaza Park in 1930s Los Angeles. We see several men, unemployed and having no place to go, sitting on benches in the warm morning sun. Kosa renders this otherwise melancholy theme in the bright sunlight with vivid colors of Southern California. The paint is applied boldly, with areas of thick wet-applied paint next to bits of blank paper.
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