Richard Ryan
b. 1950, London, England
Bird in Tree, woodcut, 56 x 36 inches (image), 64 x 43 inches (sheet), edition 35, 2014
Bird I, woodcut, 53 x 40 inches (image), 60 x 43 inches (sheet), edition 25, 2009
nine black poppies, woodcut, 54 x 40 inches (image), 60 x 43 inches (sheet), edition 25, 2008
nine blue poppies, color woodcut, 54 x 40 inches (image), 60 x 43 inches (sheet), edition 25, 2007
from the artist:
"My 'nine blue poppies' woodcut project began as a gouache study for a large painting. Over the last several years I have been made a number of paintings of things that grow on my property, either in my garden or wild in the landscape. Last year was a good year for our poppy plants; the flowers were large and particularly malevolent. There were six main thoughts in my mind when I decided to try to use these flowers for a painting: their dark beauty, the color blue, our current wars in the middle east, the anti war poetry of the first world war in Europe, the heroin trade, and one of my favorite songs by Captain Beefheart, 'Veterans Day Poppy.' These thoughts kept combining and recombining in various forms of meanings, ironies, and paradoxes. I decided this would do for a start."
Tulips I, color aquatint, 20 x 17 1/2 Inches (image), 27 3/4 x 22 1/4 inches (sheet), 1997, edition 22
Tulips II, color aquatint, 20 x 17 1/2 inches (image), 27 3/4 x 22 1/4 inches (sheet), 1997, edition 22
VIIl, etching with graphite surface roll, 9 1/2 x 8 inches (image), 27 1/4 x 19 inches (sheet), 1986-1988, edition 20
III, etching with graphite surface roll, 9 1/2 x 8 inches (image), 27 1/4 x 19 inches (sheet), 1986-1988, edition 20
Selected Collections
Auchenbach Foundation for the Graphic Arts, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, CA
Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
Harnett Museum of Art, University of Richmond, Richmond, VA