Brian Alfred (American). City Sunrise. 2004. Acrylic paint on canvas. Gift from Vicki and Kent Logan to the Collection of the Denver Art Museum. 2015.608.

This object is currently on view

height: 94 in, 238.7600 cm; width: 132 in, 335.2800 cm; depth: 1 1/2 in, 3.8100 cm

Modern and Contemporary Art

Modern and Contemporary Art

“City Sunrise” examines the interaction between technology and our perception and processing of our surroundings. Here, we see an overhead view of a computer altered cityscape; the buildings have been reduced to their simplest forms. The flattened planes of color along with Alfred’s implementation of slight chiaroscuro of the muted tones to depict the rising sun, give the work an almost eerie stillness, devoid of any human activity, and the crowded buildings add a sense of claustrophobia to the image. There is a strange creepiness to the work conveyed through Alfred’s use of a bluish haze reminiscent of a Yves Tanguy painting, sometimes interpreted as “showing a place where all living things have been annihilated.” (Radar: Selections from the Collection of Vicki and Kent Logan, 70)

Born in 1974 in Pittsburgh, Alfred received his BFA from Pennsylvania State University and his MFA in 1999 from Yale University. He also attended the Skowhegan School of Sculpture and Painting in Madison, Maine.

• "Radar: Selections from the Collection of Vicki and Kent Logan"—Denver Art Museum [10/06/2006 - 07/15/2007]
• “Disruption: Works from the Vicki and Kent Logan Collection” — Denver Art Museum, 1/13/2022