Untitled (Head)

Artist Gary Mayer (American, born 1957)

Date1977 - 1978

MediumOil on cardboard

Dimensions78 × 66 in. (198.1 × 167.6 cm)

ClassificationsPainting

Credit LineGift of James Pearson Duffy, 1992

Object numberUAC1343

DescriptionBorn in Detroit in 1957, Gary Mayer received his BFA from Wayne State University in 1981. With expressionistic qualities, Mayer's paintings convey a certain surge of energy and aggression, producing an animated and dynamic image. Much of his work fuses this aggression with religious themes and symbols. The monumental size of Untitled (Head) exemplifies the aggressive approach Mayer has taken to painting, pushing a sense of immediacy as the composition takes up the viewer's entire field of vision. The medium of cardboard used in turn represents the shared aesthetic of the Cass Corridor movement,a style which valued use of available found objects and elements as materials with which to create. Mayer, since the time of his involvement in the second-generation Cass Corridor artistic movement of the 1980s, has relocated to New York City to continue on in his work.

Text by Claire Cirocco

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