Pelasgian Slate III (Primary Title)
Richard Carlyon, American, 1930 - 2006 (Artist)
“My great-uncle Alfred was forty years old on the day that I was born. He died on my twenty-fourth birthday. During the years I spent with him, I never—ever—heard uncle Alfred speak as much as a single word to anyone. His only vocalizations consisted of beautifully hummed sounds. I learned a lot from uncle Alfred.”
—Richard Carlyon
A longtime Richmond artist, Carlyon produced three groups of what he called slates. Each title was inspired by ancient Greek creation myths—the Olympian, the Pelagasian, and the Orphic. Pelasgian refers to the Greeks who preceded the Hellenes, while slate references ancient carved tablets. Carlyon’s works, however, avoid making direct connections to their mythological namesakes, suggesting instead the general notion of painting as a primordial and generative task.
The surfaces of Carlyon’s paintings are built up from multiple layers (sometimes thirty or more) of thinned paint, each layer altering the paintings final appearance. This slow style of working begins at the gestural and ends at the abstract. As individual brushstrokes dissolve into smooth areas of matte color, Carlyon’s process mimics that of myths passed down and slowly altered until they take on the matter-of-factness of natural objects.
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