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Ralph Eugene Meatyard
Untitled (Boy with Flag) [Christopher and the Rebuilding of America]

1959/1974

$5,250
£4,022.83
€4,627.19
CA$7,505.59
A$8,152.44
CHF 4,316.03
MX$98,435.61
NOK 53,881.29
SEK 51,043.96
DKK 34,550.85

About the Item

From a portfolio of ten gelatin silver prints from original Meatyard negatives (1959-71) Printed April 1974 Edition of 130 Credit stamp, verso 6.75 x 6.75 inches, image 15 x 12 inches, mount This photograph is offered by ClampArt, located in New York City. “This photograph is found in the portrait section of the Time-Life publication "Photographing Children" (1971) and is described as a ‘direct view’. It is anything but. The ‘Rebuilding’ of the title may refer either to the continuing reconstruction of the post-Civil War South or to the current turmoil of integration in that region. The expensive Arcadian wallpaper of this decrepit mansion no doubt signifies the aristocratic, ruined Confederacy. The damaged doll perhaps symbolizes the previous tenants who were forced to rejoin the Union (or, in this case, to form a union with the boy who stands in for the North). The boy possibly also signifies America’s youth or, given Meatyard’s cynicism, its ignorance.” —Judith Keller, Ralph Eugene Meatyard (London: Phaidon Press Limited, 2002), pp. 38-39 An optician by trade, Ralph Eugene Meatyard was a self-described “dedicated amateur” photographer. He pursued his own vision to produce an exquisitely enigmatic, widely admired body of work. Meatyard began taking photographs in 1950, roaming the backwoods and towns in Kentucky, experimenting with framing, multiple exposures, and blurring to produce haunting, abstracted images of natural and manmade environments. In the late 1950s, he began incorporating monstrous, oversized latex masks and hands into his photographs, in addition to plastic dolls. His family and friends were the protagonists in his carefully composed scenes. For Meatyard, who was inspired by literature, Zen Buddhism, and jazz, the masks served to equalize his subjects and shift focus elsewhere—to the poignant juxtaposition of otherworldly faces on human bodies, to the ambiguous and unknowable in human nature.

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Untitled (Boy Making Gesture) [Michael and Christopher]
By Ralph Eugene Meatyard
Located in New York, NY
From a portfolio of ten gelatin silver prints from original Meatyard negatives (1959-71) Printed April 1974 Edition of 130 Credit stamp, verso 7 x 7 inches, image 15 x 12 inches, mount This photograph is offered by ClampArt, located in New York City. “In the 1950s few photographers, particularly men, chose their models from their own families. Meatyard, however, found inspiration in his three offspring. This was perhaps due to his interest in Ben Shahn’s postwar paintings of Italian children playing among the ruins of war; the dolls, puppets, and children in Rainer Maria Rilke’s poetry...
Category

Late 20th Century American Modern Portrait Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Madonna
By Ralph Eugene Meatyard
Located in New York, NY
From a portfolio of ten gelatin silver prints from original Meatyard negatives (1959-71) Printed April 1974 Edition of 130 Credit stamp, verso 6.5 x 7 inches, image 15 x 12 inches, mount This photograph is offered by ClampArt, located in New York City. “Madelyn Meatyard was an indulgent model. The role her husband usually chose for her was that of mother, posing with one or more of her three children. Here, he stations her before an arched window. The pious atmosphere created by this framing is contradicted by Madelyn’s everyday dress and by the dilapidated Venetian blinds behind her. Unlike a traditional religious icon, this Madonna gazes sternly into space, while her small child stands facing the maternal loins from which she sprang. Many photographers prior to Meatyard—such as Alfred Stieglitz, Edwards Weston and Harry Callahan—had produced series based on their beguiling wives.” —Judith Keller, Ralph Eugene Meatyard (London: Phaidon Press Limited, 2002), pp. 86-87 An optician by trade, Ralph Eugene Meatyard was a self-described “dedicated amateur” photographer. He pursued his own vision to produce an exquisitely enigmatic, widely admired body of work. Meatyard began taking photographs in 1950, roaming the backwoods and towns in Kentucky, experimenting with framing, multiple exposures, and blurring to produce haunting, abstracted images of natural and manmade environments. In the late 1950s, he began incorporating monstrous, oversized latex masks...
Category

Late 20th Century American Modern Portrait Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Untitled (Figure and Boat)
By Ralph Eugene Meatyard
Located in New York, NY
From a portfolio of ten gelatin silver prints from original Meatyard negatives (1959-71) Printed April 1974 Edition of 130 Credit stamp, verso 7 x 7 inches, image 15 x 12 inches, mount This photograph is offered by ClampArt, located in New York City. An optician by trade, Ralph Eugene Meatyard was a self-described “dedicated amateur” photographer. He pursued his own vision to produce an exquisitely enigmatic, widely admired body of work. Meatyard began taking photographs in 1950, roaming the backwoods and towns in Kentucky, experimenting with framing, multiple exposures, and blurring to produce haunting, abstracted images of natural and manmade environments. In the late 1950s, he began incorporating monstrous, oversized latex masks...
Category

Late 20th Century American Modern Figurative Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Lucybelle Crater and her 15 year old son's friend
By Ralph Eugene Meatyard
Located in New York, NY
From a portfolio of ten gelatin silver prints from original Meatyard negatives (1959-71) Printed April 1974 Edition of 130 Credit stamp, verso 7 x 7 inches, image 15 x 12 inches, mount This photograph is offered by ClampArt, located in New York City. An optician by trade, Ralph Eugene Meatyard was a self-described “dedicated amateur” photographer. He pursued his own vision to produce an exquisitely enigmatic, widely admired body of work. Meatyard began taking photographs in 1950, roaming the backwoods and towns in Kentucky, experimenting with framing, multiple exposures, and blurring to produce haunting, abstracted images of natural and manmade environments. In the late 1950s, he began incorporating monstrous, oversized latex masks...
Category

1970s American Modern Portrait Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Romance of Ambrose Bierce #3 [Romance (N.) from Ambrose Bierce #3]
By Ralph Eugene Meatyard
Located in New York, NY
From a portfolio of ten gelatin silver prints from original Meatyard negatives (1959-71) Printed April 1974 Edition of 130 Credit stamp, verso 7 x 7.5 inches, image 15 x 12 inches, mount This photograph is offered by ClampArt, located in New York City. “Meatyard took his definition of romance from The Devil’s Dictionary (1911) compiled by American writer Ambrose Bierce from the satirical pieces he published weekly in the late nineteenth century. The American grotesque of Bierce’s tall tales is here combined with Meatyard’s Surrealist inclinations and the European, particularly French, interest in primitive masks, perhaps with the intention of creating a parody of high art. Rather than sports fans, the stadium benches...
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Late 20th Century American Modern Portrait Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Untitled (Flag Girl)
By Amy Stein
Located in New York, NY
Digital C-print Signed and numbered, verso 20 x 20 inches (Edition of 10) 30 x 30 inches (Edition of 5) This photograph is offered by ClampArt, located in New York City. Please no...
Category

Early 2000s Contemporary Portrait Photography

Materials

C Print

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