Ocean
late 1940s
Oil on academy board (later mounted to hardboard)
22.2 × 29.8 cm (8.7 × 11.7 in)
SEE IT IN PERSON
● On view now — Collection Gallery, Room 17, South Wall
Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia · verified July 2026
Discussion
FROM THE BARNES FOUNDATION’S CATALOG
Hankins was a Russian-born Philadelphian who worked for the WPA and studied at the Barnes. Ocean is an abstracted image of blue-and-white waves washing over a beach, fractured by black, red, and white geometric and organic shapes. Hankins wrote in his book The Way to Art , "My paintings are based on a realistic thought, using shapes and forms derived from nature to express that thought."
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