American Art Collaborative

“The Waiting Room is a kind of purgatory---people just waiting---waiting to wait. It is not living. It is a matter of waiting---not being one’s self. Not enjoying life, not being happy, waiting, always waiting for something that might be better---which never comes. Why can’t they just enjoy the moment?” The artist, quoted in Garver, George Tooker, 198
George Tooker grew frustrated with the bureaucracy while trying to obtain building permits for a house he bought in New York. He painted several images that show “faceless” government workers and run-down people getting nowhere (Garver, George Tooker, 1985). The clinical interior of The Waiting Room evokes the conformity of the 1950s and emphasizes the pale, drawn expressions on the figures. The people stand in numbered boxes, evoking ideas of standardization that force people into predefined categories. The man on the left appears to be in charge of the “sorting,” creating a sinister view of government scrutiny