2016.37.1

Oil painting of five American American men. Three men, with their backs to the viewer, are standing around a fourth man, laying on the ground. A fifth man is standing away from the group facing the viewer. Each man is wearing a white t-shirt and either blue or black pants and black shoes. The background has blocks of red, blue and white.

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.