Matthew Lyman's Multimedia Paintings Exhibited in Mullins Library
“Days of Grimness and Plutonium” by Matthew Lyman, 2000. Used by permission.
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Artist Matthew Lyman’s work is not easily described. He himself explains it as “poetic storytelling that is abstract and painfully absurd.” In a new exhibit on display in Mullins Library, Lyman adroitly combines technical skill and humor in paintings that are part social commentary, part riddle, a combination that he calls a “system of iconic folklore.” In short, the works challenge the viewer to understand more than they see.
Although viewers may feel “an immediate connection with the obvious: the vivid color palette, two-dimensional cartoon-like rendering and often quite humorous text sprinkled throughout,” Lyman says there is “a certain all-encompassing, big bang to black hole feeling about viewing” his “multilayered paintings” that leads the viewer to contemplate the not-so-obvious.
For instance, in Gardening in the Age of Extinction, one of Lyman’s characteristic psychedelic-patterned stretch figures runs with his harvest away from the spotlight of a helicopter hovering against a lurid red sky. Similarly, in Days of Grimness and Plutonium, a stretched figure resembling an octopus carefully balances clay pots containing a single flower on each of his raised hands and feet, while a mushroom cloud blooms in the distance. Perhaps what we are meant to see here is that farming and sustenance are threatened by modern engines of war and destruction. Or not.
In contrast, the companion pieces Life is Thundering Blissful Toward Death in a Stampede and Death is Stampeding Dreadful Toward Life in a Thunder evade the easy interpretation. In the first painting, “Life” is depicted as a herd of vegetative-furred bison, lifted high on stalk-like legs, headed toward a rounded-hill village, which is “Death,” as we know from the not-subtle script curled around the knolls. But in the second painting, “Death” could be the figure paddling a boat surrounded by ominous tentacles rising from the sea, his long, stretched legs merely unfurling coils, or “Death” could be the distant ship, already on fire and burning up to the masts. Neither circumstance looks hopeful, and “Life” does not appear to be a possible destination for either vessel. But complexities are intended. Lyman explains, “The narratives are subtle, singing quiet songs of Jungian duality, existential dilemma, high anxiety, irony, satire, desperation and beauty.”
“Works” by Matthew Lyman will be on display in the Mullins Library lobby level through the end of October. To see additional images, visit http://libinfo.uark.edu/info/artexhibit.asp or for more information, call 479-575-2962.