Blanton Museum of Art - Everything that stands will be at odds with its neighbor and everything that falls will perish without grace

Everything that stands will be at odds with its neighbor and everything that falls will perish without grace

2003
21st century
239.4 cm x 396.3 cm x 6.35 cm (94 1/4 in. x 156 in. x 2 1/2 in.)

Robyn O'Neil (Omaha, Nebraska, 1977 - ) Primary

Object Type: drawing

Artist Nationality: North America, American

Medium and Support: Graphite on paper

Credit Line: Partial and pledged gift of Jeanne and Michael Klein, 2004

Temp ID: T2004.2.1/3-3/3

Over three months, using only pencil and paper, O’Neil crafted an alternate universe whose expansive size, meticulous detail, and disturbing subject matter have a powerful impact on the viewer. Here a mountainous landscape sets the stage for an absurdist narrative: slightly overweight men in identical sweatsuits run, crawl, and fall seemingly without purpose or direction. The composition’s deliberate allusion to Hieronymous Bosch’s early sixteenth-century altarpiece The Garden of Earthy Delights, as well as the title, whose cadence recalls Old Testament prophesies of impending disaster, create a strong sensation of dread.

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landscape

figurative

mountains

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