Joshua Dietz Pop Surrealist Flying Whale Painting | Oil on Wood Panel

A wide-format, sky-filled painting from New York-based pop surrealist Joshua Dietz, this work on wood panel captures one of the artist's most joyful and quietly melancholy images: a great sperm whale suspended in a luminous blue sky, lifted aloft by dozens of colorful balloons tethered to its body. Off to the right, a solitary bare tree branch holds its own smaller cluster, as if it too is straining toward flight.

The composition is open and airy, the sky rendered in soft gradations of cerulean and haze, while the balloons pulse with color — reds, oranges, greens, pinks, yellows — each one individually painted with a loose, gestural touch. The whale itself is rendered with surprising tenderness, its grey-blue form segmented and softly lit, eyes downcast. There is something both absurd and deeply wistful about the image: the impossible made almost believable.

Dietz works in a tradition that runs from René Magritte through contemporary pop surrealism, finding the emotional weight in images that are, on the surface, cheerful and strange. This is one of the more expansive and compositionally ambitious pieces in his animal series.

Presented in a natural wood float frame. Attributed to Joshua Dietz by the seller. Not signed on the front.

Measurements

48.5"W × 24.5"H