When going to the opening for Richard Deon’s “Paradox and Conformity,” I had an open mind and looked at every single art piece. By the end of the viewing, I was puzzled and confused. There were so many shapes and people reoccurring throughout the pieces, I felt like I was in some sort of suspenseful movie the whole time.
My favorite piece in the show was called “Matter of Perspective.” It was made with acrylic and was 114 by 143.5 feet. This piece was the most confusing to me. There were two men in the painting. One was very stiff, his arms were at his side and he was standing in place. The other seemed to be a professor of some sort. He was pointing with a pointer as if teaching a lesson. There was a large, abstract shape in the middle of the men. This shape reoccurred throughout the whole gallery, in every single piece. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t identify what it was, or what it could mean. However, I thought the most interesting part of the piece was the background. There was a bridge of some sort, train tracks that one of the men was standing on, land, and water. The two men reflected on the ground. What confused me most was their reflections. How does someone reflect on train tracks, and how does someone’s reflection show perfectly in the grass? The piece had me questioning absolutely everything. Was he really standing on train tracks, or was it something else?
The other piece I focused on a lot was “Madam I’m Adam.” Like the other works in the gallery, this one was hard to figure out exactly what was happening. But I looked at this piece more because it was aesthetically pleasing to me. The bright oranges and yellows stood out against everything else. The bold black lines created great contrast within the piece. The people in the work were only black and white, giving them a cartoon character feeling. However, the bright background colors really made the people stand out from the piece.
After looking around the gallery I read an article saying Richard Dion explored 1950’s social studies textbooks. This show was inspired by the illustrations found in these books. After reading this, the whole concept made a little more sense to me. However, the way he placed images, used his colors, and kept repeating similar shapes and objects, really made his viewers think about his pieces. Making the viewers stop and think about your artwork is really important, and I think this show was extremely successful in doing just that.
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