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Zebra and Parachute

Image credit: Tate

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'Zebra and Parachute' was one of Wood’s last paintings. The image brings together an unusual collection of elements that give the work a surrealist flavour. A zebra appears against the backdrop of a modernist building. The animal stands on the building’s roof terrace near a raised flowerbed. The distinctive lines of the architecture, which include strong diagonals produced by a zig-zagging ramp and the cylindrical forms of two chimneys or towers in the background, suggest an almost abstract arrangement that contrasts with the altogether different pattern produced by the zebra’s stripes. A dark shadow falls just in front of the zebra, casting the right-hand zone of the terrace into semi-darkness and adding to the mysterious atmosphere of the image. In the sky above this scene, a parachute is descending. The tiny figure that dangles in the parachute harness appears limp and lifeless.

Tate

Art UK Founder Partner

More information
Title

Zebra and Parachute

Date

1930

Medium

Oil on canvas

Measurements

H 45.7 x W 55.9 cm

Accession number

T12038

Acquisition method

Accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to the Tate Gallery 2004

Work type

Painting

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