
Ralph Eugene MeatyardUntitled

Ralph Eugene MeatyardUntitled

Ralph Eugene MeatyardUntitled

Ralph Eugene MeatyardUntitled

Ralph Eugene MeatyardUntitled

Ralph Eugene MeatyardUntitled

Ralph Eugene MeatyardUntitled

Ralph Eugene MeatyardUntitled

Fraenkel Gallery will be closed Saturday, 2 July for the holiday weekend, reopening to the public on Tuesday, 5 July.
Photographed in the open landscape, or in simple rural environments, this series evokes the transcendental aspects of nature, and truths that appear beyond the intellect.
Photographed in the open landscape, or in simple rural environments, this series evokes the transcendental aspects of nature, and truths that appear beyond the intellect.
The series presents portraits of the artist’s wife wearing a dime-store hag’s mask, paired with various family members and friends who wear a transparent hard-plastic mask. The titles of the images outline cryptic relationships, and in all instances, both figures are identified by the same name: Lucybelle Crater.
A fervent reader, Meatyard was deeply influenced by the writer Ambrose Bierce’s definition in The Devil’s Dictionary: “ROMANCE, n. Fiction that owes no allegiance to the God of Things as They Are.”
Meatyard’s staged images—set in abandoned spaces and often using masks and props—are at once familiar and enigmatic, reflecting the artist’s fascination with the uncanniness of ordinary life.
A meditative study of the mysterious forms of twigs and tree branches, inspired and informed by the artist’s deep study of Zen Buddhism.