ROBYN O'NEIL
Government Bureau (after Tooker), 2016
Graphite on paper
22 3/4 x 30 in. Sheet
25 3/4 x 32 3/4 in. Frame
25 3/4 x 32 3/4 in. Frame
Copyright The Artist
Much of Robyn O’Neil’s new work focuses on the head, groups of heads to be exact — men on the move, unaware of each other or where they might be...
Much of Robyn O’Neil’s new work focuses on the head, groups of heads to be exact — men on the move, unaware of each other or where they might be headed, faces obscured and unseeing, incapable of escaping their destiny. These drawings are, in part, an inspired reimagining of the group isolation shown in George Tooker’s painting Government Bureau, as well as the truncated repetition of bodies and body parts in Philip Guston’s Clothes Inflation Drill. Combining this anxious narrative with detailed landscape and a clear nod to medieval and Proto-Renaissance Italian painting, the artist gives us a picture of Hell tempered by a glimpse of Heaven. The Future may seem dark but there is grace in the detail. Though these heads cannot see each other, they are seen by us, and so there is kinship. They are not alone, nor are we.
Exhibitions
"Robyn O'Neil: WE, THE MASSES," Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Fort Worth, TX, 18 October 2019 - 9 February 2020."The Good Herd,” Susan Inglett Gallery, NYC, 3 February 2017 – 11 March 2017.