Nice

Philip Evergood's 1966 lithograph, "Nice," offers a glimpse into the later phase of an artist known for his socially conscious, often fantastical, and deeply personal style. While Evergood is widely recognized for his powerful oil paintings, he dedicated himself to printmaking, including lithography, on a large scale after 1945, having studied techniques at Stanley William Hayter's studio. This work, created seven years before his death, likely reflects the continued blend of reality and imagination that characterizes his art. Evergood was a figurative painter who embraced moralizing themes and a blend of the sophisticated with intentionally crude techniques, setting him apart as a maverick in an art world increasingly valuing abstraction. "Nice" would have been produced during a period when Evergood had already departed from his earlier "Social Realism" to explore symbolism, while still maintaining his distinctive, often humorous, and always vital approach to depicting contemporary life.