Guy Lyman

Vessel Series, #13 (Large), -2010
Mixed Media
36 x 48 in
$2,800
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The list of what goes into the making of these extremely complex paintings includes beeswax, tar, acrylic paint, oil paint, printed tissue, charcoal, pastel, lacquer and modeling paste. This series from a few years back evokes the ancient with their layered, weathered surfaces, but are also somehow strangely contemporary. This is part of a series of paintings that has been ongoing for years, with later ones becoming brighter, looser and more biomorphic. The paintings up to now have all been sold privately, directly to collectors, often before completion. The paintings in the series have been placed both in the most contemporary settings and rooms full of fine antiques, reflecting their balance of ancientness and modernity. This is a large painting that will make its present felt throughout an entire room. Painted on board, with sturdy stretcher built for support.


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.