Concept Critique #1: George Tooker

A supermarket could be considered the watering hole of a suburban town. Family members go on shopping dates to pick out cereals, frozen pizzas, and slabs of meat. They all grab their carts, travel down aisles and aisles of food and drinks, and then make there way to the register to pay for their items. George Tooker's "Supermarket" depicts this suburban supermarket with great realism. He establishes the monotonous aisles with continuous colors and simple numbers. He takes the reader to a familiar atmosphere of food shopping with his smooth technique.

The foreground of the painter seems to draw the viewer first. We see a small group of shoppers, all of which look bored. Some are wearing similar clothes. Their lack of enthusiasm is present in their faces as well as these dull clothes. One of the subjects even has bed-curlers in her hair, creating a sleepy feeling.

The eye then moves up toward a window where a man is glaring out. He appears as though he is leering at the shoppers and appears like an employee of the supermarket. There is another man behind him, who is also wearing the same exact shirt, a possible indication that both are workers in a break room in their uniforms. The background does not escape the conformity of the foreground. The aisles all appear as though they have the same item. The colors are all the same and the only difference between the aisles are their numbers.

Tooker seems to be making a statement about this constant conformity of suburban supermarkets. Their dull colors, and repeated architecture are targeted in the composition. Their endless size is also emphasized in the background that appears to be never ending. The subject matter is not hard to see and Tooker's criticism is apparent in this composition.