Responding to Modern Art: Photo-Realist Don Eddy Speaks at Bennington College

November 4, 2005

When expressionism pierced the painting community in the 1960s, artist Don Eddy rivaled the movement by combining concrete realism with abstract assertions. In the ‘70s, he produced “cutouts” in reaction to pop art. Famous for his work as a photo-realist painter, Eddy will speak at Bennington College as part of the Visual Arts Lecture Series, on Tuesday, November 8, 2005 at 7:30 pm in Tishman Lecture Hall.

Eddy’s paintings are in the collections of more than 30 museums including the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Guggenheim Museum. He has spent his career reinventing popular artistic movements and approaching art in a way that is highly unorthodox for its time. Some of Eddy’s unique work emphasizes technical aspects of art such as angles, while others spotlight issues of humanity, spirituality, and nature. Eddy explained, “You can either look through the window, or at the window, or at the reflection in the window. Nobody ever looks at all three at once, because it is impossible to focus on all three.”

Throughout the past decade, Eddy’s work has reflected poetic relationships, or as described in the book Don Eddy, The Art of Paradox by Donald Kuspit, he is “echoing ecosystems.” Kuspit continues, “an Eddy picture is a kind of Chinese box in which each stage of consciousness folds into the other, creating an all-in-one effect, giving the picture a magical density and grandeur.”

This event is free and open to the public. For further details or parking information, visit www.bennington.edu or contact 802-440-4549.