ARCHIVES

BAM ARCHIVES ( 2015 -  )

PANOPLY: 26 PAINTED LIVES

March 14 - May 29, 2024

Panoply: 26 Painted Lives bring together two bodies of work from portrait artist Ray Allen Parker. The LIT series forms a sort of visual biography of the artist, who holds two degrees in English literature from the University of Arkansas. These portraits of literary figures trace Parker’s journey through the novels and poetry that shaped his thoughts and feelings about major themes explored in literature.

The Biographies series is comprised of forensically close, introspective portraits of family and friends. These works, stripped of all background artifice, reveal a maximum of psychological expressiveness with minimal facial expression.

In conjunction with the exhibition, Dr. Rachael Isom performed a lecture on frontispieces of referenced and related literature.

PANOPLY: 26 PAINTED LIVES EDUCATIONAL MATERIAL

Interview with Ray Allen Parker, in conversation with Bradbury Art Museum Director, Dr. Ann Prentice Wagner (11:00).

Dr. Rachael Isom, Assistant Professor of English at ASU, presents a web talk about author portraits on book frontispieces, used by such authors as American poet Walt Whitman and English poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning (29:46).

You may also view the slideshow here, or utilize a guide to the talk for a deeper engagement.