Ralph Eugene Meatyard: An American Visionary

by Barbara Tannenbaum, David L. Jacobs, Van Deren Coke

Book by

Genres: Art, Photography

205 pages, Hardcover

First published August 15, 1991

Reviews

[Paul Secor]

wonderful and weird.

[Brian]

Meatyard's work challenged most of the cultural and aesthetic conventions of his time and did not fit in with the dominant notions of the kind of art photography could and should be. His work sprang from the beauty of ideas rather than ideas of the beautiful. Wide reading in literature (especially poetry) and philosophy (especially Zen) stimulated his imagination. While others roamed the streets searching for America and truth, Meatyard haunted the world of inner experience, continually posing unsettling questions about our emotional realities through his pictures. Once again, however, he inhabited this world quite differently from other photographers exploring inner experience at the time.

[Jeff Jackson]

Nice overview of Meatyard, American Gothic photographer whose most indelible work from the 1960s featured people in grotesque masks in vaguely unsettling scenarios. Extraordinary stuff. Book is rounded out with some of his Zen Twigs series and surrealistic nature shots. Meatyard was a big influence on Cindy Sherman. His images also inspired parts of Todd Haynes' "I'm Not There."

[Beth]

i like his name better than i like his work.