- Artist
- Edward Giobbi born 1926
- Medium
- Oil paint, charcoal and graphite on canvas and hardboard
- Dimensions
- Support, circular: 1683 × 1683 × 37 mm
- Collection
- Tate
- Acquisition
- Purchased 1964
- Reference
- T00673
Catalogue entry
Edward Giobbi born 1926T00673 November 22nd No.3 1964
Inscribed 'GIOBBI-64' b.r. and '"NOV 22 NO.1" | GIOBBI-64 | OIL | CHARCOAL | PENCIL' on back of canvas
Oil, charcoal and pencil on circular canvas, with four square hardboard inserts, diameter 65 3/4 (167)
Purchased from the artist through the New Art Centre (Grant-in-Aid) 1964
Exh: Edward Giobbi, New Art Centre, London, June 1964 (25, repr. in colour)
Repr: Arts Review, XVI, 30 May-13 June 1964, p.20 in colour; Connoisseur, CLVI, 1964, p.202
This painting is the third of a series of four based on the assassination of President Kennedy on 22 November 1963 at Dallas, Texas. The other three all measure 183 x 183cm. Nos.1 and 2 were painted in December 1963, No.3 in 1964 and No.4 after the Warren Report came out in 1965.
The artist states (letter of 27 February 1969): 'Nov. 22 #3 - the painting purchased by the Tate Gallery - was painted in early 1964 and the involvement was primarily one of sadness and resignation.
'Nov. 22 #3 was inspired by a photo of the interior of the automobile after Pres. Kennedy was removed. Somehow it seemed unbelievable to me that the last moments of Pres. Kennedy's life were spent in an automobile - that automobile took on a new significance to me and became a temple.
'The superimposition of the more or less same views of the interior of the automobile, the repeated images, were painted as an echo - to repeat, to keep repeating - this is the auto the president died in, this is the auto the president died in etc.
'The problem of the use of a three dimensional separation between one two dimensional image and another is something I have been involved with since 1961.
'The ultimate objective is for the painting to function as a two dimensional painting rather than a painted object.
'The cross created by the four squares is a product of the architecture of the painting and not a deliberate image.
'I have been using the rectangular dots and images in various ways since 1956 although in this painting I used the image to agitate the canvas, to give the quality of a "presence" because I felt even after Pres. Kennedy was removed from the auto his presence remained for some time afterwards.'
Published in:
Ronald Alley, Catalogue of the Tate Gallery's Collection of Modern Art other than Works by British Artists, Tate Gallery and Sotheby Parke-Bernet, London 1981, pp.287-8, reproduced p.287