© Estate of Ralph Eugene Meatyard, courtesy Fraenkel Gallery
Currently not on view
Untitled,
ca. 1968
Ralph Eugene Meatyard, American, 1925–1972
x1992-148
Meatyard, an optician, began his part-time career as a photographer in Lexington, Kentucky. He acquired a camera in 1950 with the intention of photographing his newborn son and quickly developed a unique approach to image making. Through juxtapositions of the banal and the fantastical, Meatyard created highly subjective images of his wife and children, his home, and his rural surroundings in the American South, as seen in this eerie yet funny assemblage. Eventually, Meatyard developed a close relationship with photographer and fellow Lexington Camera Club member Van Deren Coke, who would later encourage him to exhibit his photographs nationally.
Information
Title
Untitled
Dates
ca. 1968
Maker
Medium
Gelatin silver print
Dimensions
image: 24.6 x 19.3 cm. (9 11/16 x 7 5/8 in.)
sheet: 25.2 x 20.3 cm. (9 15/16 x 8 in.)
Credit Line
Museum purchase, anonymous gift
Object Number
x1992-148
Place Made
North America, United States, Kentucky, Lexington
Inscription
Signed in ink, verso top left corner: Madelyn O. Meatyard [the artist's widow]
Inscribed in graphite in unknown hand, verso top right corner: [sideways] P
Inscribed in graphite in unknown hand, verso bottom center: 17
Culture
Techniques
Subject
