2016.37.3

Oil painting of two African America men paving the ground of a semi-abstract setting. There is a cluster of trees at the right and a blue door on the left sides of the painting. Both men are wearing baseball caps, one is standing, the other is bent over.

San Francisco-born Walter Gordon Phillips is not widely known as an artist. He made art while pursuing a long career in education, most notably at Laney College. He often painted scenes of everyday life and regularly took his subjects from photographs or sketches. Phillips used a palette knife rather than a brush to achieve the bold strokes of paint that define his artwork. His style combines his personal viewpoint and the influences of his time.