Object Record
Images
Metadata
Artist |
Byerley, Gerald |
Title |
Study for Episode on the Appian Way |
Medium |
Oil on canvas |
Date |
1981 |
Description |
Gerald Byerley (Knoxville 1937-1998 South Carolina) Untitled (Study for Episode on the Appian Way), 1981 Oil on canvas 30 x 45 inches Knoxville Museum of Art, gift of Zoë Hoyle in memory of Gerald Byerley By the early 1970s, East Tennessee artist Gerald Byerley had earned national attention for his experimental video and performance work, including being highlighted alongside renowned artists Richard Serra and Paul Kos in a 1973 Boston Public Television documentary "Video: The New Wave." By the late 1970s, however, he shifted his attention to paintings in which he often looked to moving imagery from vintage films as the basis for his compositions. In some cases, he captured such footage by taking photographs of selected scenes as they appeared on his television screen. By the mid-1980s, he began adding glitter to many painted compositions to reference their "silver screen" origins and ties to what he perceived as the pitfalls of consumer culture. This untitled work depicts a mysterious lone figure standing beside a vintage automobile along the Appian Way, an historic route in southeast Italy connecting Rome and Brindisi. It is a study for a larger glitter painting in which Byerley adds several cloaked characters whose identities and intentions are unknown. |
Catalog Number |
2017.03.01 |
Search Terms |
Oil paintings Trees Automobiles Paintings Canvas |
Credit line |
gift of Zoë Hoyle in memory of Gerald Byerley |