When we last saw this body of work, it was at the DeYoung Museum five years ago.
Fortunately, the Fraenkel Gallery continues to present Ralph Eugene
Meatyard: American Mystic through May 6, 2017,
featuring more than 40 works by this enigmatic and legendary photographer.
The
exhibition is a rare opportunity to view both iconic and lesser-known
photographs by Meatyard alongside the artist’s notebooks and annotated
volumes from his personal library. The exhibition coincides with the
publication a major new monograph on the artist by the esteemed art
historian Alexander Nemerov.
Ralph Eugene Meatyard, © The Estate of Ralph Eugene Meatyard,
courtesy Fraenkel Gallery, San Francisco
American Mystic includes
a number of photographs in which Meatyard cast family members and friends in
central roles, often masked and enacting symbolic dramas, such as Romance
(N.) from Ambrose Bierce #3, 1962. Among the highlights of the exhibition
are selections from Meatyard’s memorable series The Family Album of
Lucybelle Crater, which features his wife, Madelyn, in a grotesque mask,
accompanied by a friend or relative in a similarly disfiguring translucent
mask.
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