David Lyle "At the End of the Day"

Lyons Wier Gallery

poster for David Lyle  "At the End of the Day"

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Working from personal family photos, and found vintage prints, Lyle seamlessly composes works that harken back to America of the 1950's and 1960's - not as they were, but as they are reimaged by our contemporary zeitgeist. A time of blissful naivity and dim-witted prejudice.

Lyle's method of production is highly metaphorical in relation to his subject. Using only black paint and turpentine, Lyle spreads a rich, oily veneer over a prim, white gessoed canvas, to then remove sections with a rag, resulting in his cloudy, luminescent works on wood board. Turpentine, as derived from crude oil, carries with it connotations of industrialization and modernity, while the bright white sparkling from underneath speaks to refinement and purity.

The cinematic appeal of this collection comes as much from the style as the force of the narratives. Lyle's "They All Agreed, This Ends Here" (2010), invokes both Andy Warhol's "White Burning Car" (1963) from his seminal Death and Disaster series, and Francois Truffaut's tale of juvenile delinquency, "400 Blows" (1959). Lyle's "Revenge is a Dish Best Served Cold" (2009), in which a housewife Femme Fatale mixes up a cake with a smidgen of Ratak rat killer, could be straight out of a film noir piece, if Americans made film noir. At a moment in America's history where looking forward can feel a lot like looking back, Lyle's collection conveys a poignancy that overarches time periods, and sees the comedy in the tragedy.

Media

Schedule

from April 23, 2010 to May 21, 2010

Opening Reception on 2010-04-23 from 18:00 to 21:00

Artist(s)

David Lyle

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