‘Falling Man’ by Ernest Trova, 1987
Original St. Louis Arts Festival poster based on the artist’s most famous original work from 1964.
22” x 28.75 Inches
Lithograph print on poster, mounted to art board (previously framed).
Non-editioned multiple.
Hand-signed and dated by Trova (1927-2009).
*Note: water damage across bottom, see images).

ABOUT THE ART

Created in 1964, 'The Falling Man' is Trova's best known work. His "Falling Man" series of works, "about man at his most imperfect", featured an armless human figure, that appeared in sculptures, paintings and prints. In an interview that year with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, he described the piece as "a personal hypothetical theory on the nature of man".

Trova further stated that "I believe that man is first of all an imperfect creature. The first reaction I usually get to this is that I'm pessimistic. I don't think I am.... It's very close to many theories of man — the Catholic view that man is a fallen creature, for example."

Trova created multiple versions of 'The Falling Man', including variant sculptures and wristwatches with images of the piece. This led to charges of commercialism and critiques that the piece was period kitsch. An associate of Trova's rejected the criticism, noting that the duplicate works was an example of seriality, in which "Trova invented this great symbol of human fallibility through processing and reprocessing the image. Trova's work is misunderstood. Seriality is as essential to his work as it was to Warhol's. One of his earliest statements about 'Falling Man' was that all of it — all the sculptures, all the paintings, all the prints — were one work in his own mind."

ARTIST BIO

Trova was born on February 19, 1927 in Clayton, Missouri, where he attended Clayton High School and St. Louis University High School. His father, an industrial tool designer and inventor, died shortly after Trova graduated from high school.

Trova lived in the St. Louis area his entire life and has a star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame. As a 20-year-old, his painting 'Roman Boy', the first work he exhibited in his career, was awarded first prize in the Missouri Exhibition conducted at what was then known as the City Art Museum (now the St. Louis Art Museum). 'Roman Boy' described as a provocative "sexually graphic work", alternatively "scandalized or energized" critics and the public, and earned the work a picture in LIFE magazine, earning him a degree of recognition that was unusual for an artist from St. Louis.

He started showing his art during the early years of the Pace Gallery, which later became "one of the most powerful art galleries in the world". Some of his first art was acquired by the collections of the Guggenheim Museum and the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, as well as by the St. Louis Art Museum in his hometown and by the famous Tate Gallery in London.

Fair (see images/description) Provenance: Signari Gallery COA

28.75 x 22 in