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Explore

  • Finding: Source Material in the Archives of American Art
  • Roy Lichtenstein
  • Honore Sharrer
  • Sanford and Chapin
  • Dixie Selden
  • Anne Arnold
  • William Bunn
  • Dottie Attie
  • Ben Shahn
  • Reuben Tam
  • Oscar Bluemner
  • Ray Yoshida
  • Joseph Cornell
  • Joan Semmel
  • Don Eddy
  • Esta Nesbitt

Finding: Source Material in the Archives of American Art

Don Eddy

Archives of American Art

Don Eddy once described himself as “an obsessive-compulsive precisionist.” The execution of his hyperrealistic paintings requires tremendous discipline and scrupulous attention to detail. His process begins with several photographs, each portraying the same arrangement of objects from slightly different angles. Eddy combines elements from these sources to bring sharp focus to every object, every glimmer of light, and every reflective surface. He also contrives new color palettes, ignoring the original color of an object or even its representation in the photograph. In an interview, the artist explained that the final paintings “force the viewer to see the act of translation from the object to the photo to the painting.”


Simco shoe store window display

Source photographs of toys on display, for Don Eddy's C Series paintings

Hand-colored photograph study for Don Eddy's C Series paintings

Ray Yoshida scrapbook of advertisement clippings

Ray Yoshida scrapbook of comic book clippings

Newspaper comic clippings

Source photo for Joan Semmel's painting Hand on knee

Joan Semmel self portrait source photograph for her painting Centered

Source photograph for Joan Semmel's painting Cross-over

Sketch of multiple sailboat sails

Sketch of rigging on a sailboat

Postcard with image of Marseilles Town Hall

Postcard with image of yachts in the Marseilles harbor

Postcard from Les Sables D'Olonne in France

Mock-up of an exhibition announcement

Dotty Attie draft textual narrative for artwork

Sketchbook of variations on the painting Infanta Margaret Teresa in a pink dress

Fischbach Gallery announcement for exhibition of works by Anne Arnold

Photograph of a pig

Close-up photograph of a pig's face

Anne Arnold making a preliminary sketch for her sculpture Wall pig

Sketch of Bloomfield on a snowy day

Toumanova ballet scrapbook


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