Guy Lyman

Paladin #2, 2009
Lacquer,Pastel,Acrylic Paint,Graphite,Pigment
15 x 12 x 2 in
$540
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(Comes float-framed behind glass.) I was working on my "Gridish" paintings when I became fascinated with certain materials I was working with - a new type of super-flat, super-black paint; powdered graphite; and iron oxide pigment. I had a small canvas ready to go, and shifted my attention to concentrating on just one of the rectangular forms I had been using in the Gridish series, and applying these materials in a way that pleased me. The edges here I find particularly appealing. But that sort of industrial sheen on the surface of the rectangle is really beautiful to me.


I have been painting for about 30 years, since before I was a dealer. I always was and remain most drawn to so-called “painterly” painters, whose interest is less in the formal aspects of painting than in the paint itself, and signs of the artist’s hand in its application. Initially I was drawn to paintings from the magical period between New York Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art, by artists such as Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Jim Dine and Cy Twombly. In the Eighties, it was New York neo-Expressionists such as Julian Schnabel, Terry Winters and Donald Baechler. As you can see, in the past few years my paintings have become more formal, but you can still see a lot of the hand in them. I grew up in New Orleans, lived in various places in the U.S. and Europe, then returned to "the Big Easy" to open my Magazine Street gallery, which I sold in 2017 before moving my art business entirely online. I still enjoy meeting fellow art collectors and painters when they visit New Orleans.