The Jester

Tito Cánepa, The Jester, 1940, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Cathy Cánepa and Daniel Neuspiel, 2018.7.2
Copied Tito Cánepa, The Jester, 1940, oil on canvas, 22 x 15 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Cathy Cánepa and Daniel Neuspiel, 2018.7.2

Artwork Details

Title
The Jester
Artist
Date
1940
Location
Not on view
Dimensions
22 x 15 in.
Credit Line
Gift of Cathy Cánepa and Daniel Neuspiel
Mediums Description
oil on canvas
Classifications
Subjects
  • Figure male — waist length
  • Dress — accessory — hat
  • Performing arts — circus — clown
  • Dress — costume — mask
  • Architecture Interior — detail — window
Object Number
2018.7.2
Linked Open Data
https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/2018.7.2

Artwork Description

"As an artist my intention is to produce an intense experience within the viewer . . . in which the sensual and the intellectual complement each other."--Tito Cánepa

In this self-portrait, Tito Cánepa gazes forlornly at New York City's skyline. As a burgeoning artist in the city, Cánepa was drawn to the work of Pablo Picasso, on view at the Museum of Modern Art, and the experimental painting of Mexican muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros, in whose studio Cánepa worked as an assistant. 

Depicting himself wearing a jester hat and holding a mask, Cánepa may have been drawing a parallel between the jester's nomadic life as a traveling performer and his own experience of exile. He created this painting just a few years after emigrating to the United States to escape political repression in the Dominican Republic.