Ralph Eugene Meatyard: An American Visionary

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This catalog of a major traveling exhibition is the most comprehensive treatment and the first major survey of the work of photographer Meatyard (1925-72) since the books and exhibitions that appeared soon after his death. For the last 22 years of his life, Meatyard, a practicing optician in Lexington, Kentucky, made pictures that were uniquely photographic and unmanipulated except for his fondness for the directorial mode: props, masks, and posing. These unique images, all made in Kentucky, are mysterious, frightening, and imbued with literary and philosophical allusions. Excellent reproductions accompany essays by his lifelong friends Van Deren Coke and Wendell Berry. Akron Art Museum curator Tannenbaum analyzes the thematic periods in his work, while David L. Jacobs (art, Univ. of Houston) discusses Meatyard's working methods and critical reception. Recommended for photography collections.
- Kathleen Collins, Great Barrington, Mass.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.