Henry Koerner

The Pigeons

At first glance, The Pigeons recalls familiar public spaces. People embrace, feed pigeons, or study those around them. However, tension is ever-present: birds swarm a small girl, men engage in fist-to-cuffs, and another lies like a corpse. A master of magical realism, this work by Henry Koerner captures the chaos underlying the everyday.

The artist emigrated to the United States in 1938 from Vienna. After World War II, he returned to his home country to find nearly all his family had fallen victim to the war. Koerner spent time absorbing the loss and when he traveled back to New York, he painted The Pigeons as a reflection on the devastation.