Voice II

"Voice I" (private collection), a slightly more naturalistic rendering of essentially the same composition, was executed in 1963, and was the first in a series of paintings showing people separated or confined by walls that Tooker did over approximately the next twelve years. These works, which focus on the futility of human communication, are among Tooker's most powerful commentaries on the frustration and isolation of contemporary man. Tooker has pointed out that the two figures--one so anxious to be heard, the other straining to hear, but seemingly neither achieving satisfaction--are identical. He repeated this image in a lithograph in 1977. The artist wrote the Academy, July 28, 1972, that he had "just finished" the painting he wished to submit as his NA diploma presentation.