Passenger

Artist James Chatelain (American, born 1947)

Date2009

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensions30 × 22 in. (76.2 × 55.9 cm)

ClassificationsPainting

Credit LineGift of the artist, 2013

Object numberUAC5782

DescriptionAs a student at Wayne State University James Chatelain became an important member of the Cass Corridor movement, helping to establish the Willis Gallery. Like many of Chatelain’s well-known works, Passenger features a strange and mysterious figure posed and situated in a rather cryptic way. With no information to suggest who the figure is (except for the title) or what the figure is doing (other than kneeling), the viewer is left to determine the figure’s origins and purpose. Although minimal, Passenger has an overall mystical or spiritual feeling to it which is created by the placement of the mysterious figure within the subtly changing blackened background.

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