Yale Bulletin and Calendar

September 27, 2002|Volume 31, Number 4

Exhibit showcases works by longtime Yale professor

"Rhythm," a 1998 work
by Richard Lytle.
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An exhibition of work by artist and longtime Yale professor Richard Lytle will be on view at the Yale School of Art Sept. 30-Oct. 19.

With a range of work, from giant oil paintings -- measuring up to 7' x 10' -- to watercolors and ink drawings, the exhibition offers a sampling of Lytle's creative output from 1967 to the present.

Lytle, who came to Yale as a student in the 1950s and is now retiring after more than 40 years on the faculty, has continued to pursue his career as an artist throughout his academic tenure.

At Yale, he is especially known for his course on color, in which he follows the tradition of his friend and mentor Josef Albers. Lytle will continue to teach this course, which remains a perennial favorite among students.

Lytle served as acting dean of the School of Art on three occasions and was director of both graduate and undergraduate studies. During his only hiatus from Yale 1963-1967, he served as dean of Silvermine College of Art.

School of Art Dean Richard Benson attributes Lytle's profound influence on the school to the "artistic underpinnings" of his life.

"He paints and paints -- always tackling new ground, always exercising the principles he teaches, and always facing the true test of an artistic life in the plain walls and beckoning canvases of his Woodbridge studio," writes Benson in an introduction to the catalogue accompanying the exhibition.

Lytle has exhibited often and widely in galleries and museums across the country, and much of his work is in private and corporate collections. The Museum of Modern Art in New York and the National Museum in Washington, D.C. are among the many venues where his work is publicly displayed.

The artist does most of his work from his studio at home. While his garden is his inspiration for some of his work, Lyttle says he doesn't seek to represent objects but to translate his own perception of them. He describes his craft in the preface to the exhibition catalogue by saying, "Art is like the coin Captain Ahab nailed to the mast. The coin is promised as reward to the crewman who sights the white whale, but in its emblem each man reads his own meaning. As Ahab says, 'The round globe is but the image of the rounder globe, which like a magician's glass, to each and every man in turn mirrors back his own mysterious self.'"

The exhibition, which is free and open to the public, will be at the Holcombe T. Green, Jr. Hall Gallery, 1156 Chapel Street. The gallery is open every day of the week, 10 a.m.-6 p.m.

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