In the manner of Georges Seurat
French, 1859–1891
The Queue for the New Phone, 2026
Oil on canvas
200 × 300 cm
Never painted.
Commissioned for the collection, 2026.
PAB 2026.10.3
← Bathers at the Charging Point Circus Sideshow, Livestreamed →
A line of people stands in profile outside a glass shop at dawn, coffee in hand, folding chairs ready, and at the door one security guard with his cap on. Nobody speaks. Seurat liked his figures as stiff as chess pieces and his light pale and early, and he liked a city that kept still for him. This queue would keep still for anything. It has been here since Thursday.
The brief
A long line of upright figures in profile waiting outside a glass shop front at dawn, folding chairs, coffee cups, a security guard, pale early light. Neo-Impressionist pointillist oil painting, the entire surface built from thousands of small separate dots of pure colour that mix in the eye, complementary pairs of orange and blue and violet and yellow, stiff frieze-like figures in profile, still formal composition, dappled light, a painted dotted border at the edge, matte chalky surface. Flat frontal reproduction of the painting, the canvas fills the frame edge to edge, even lighting, no frame, no wall, no text.
Written to the house rules. The painter's name does not appear.
Take it home
The painting on this room's wall, at its own proportions, nothing written on it.
