File:Dean Byington Theory of Machines 2017.jpg

Painting by Dean Byington, Theory of Machines (Grand Saturn) (oil on linen, 57.5" x 65", 2017). The image illustrates a significant later decade and body of work in Dean Byington's career in the 2010s, when he shifted toward largely black-and-white mixed-media paintings and collages of surreal, invented universes that explored historical and sociopolitical themes (climate change, terrorism, urban sprawl, the layering of centuries of history) in a more expansive, cinematic manner. Canvases like the pictured image function like enclosures, Immersing viewers viscerally in all-over compositions that counterpoint the "antique" quality of the imagery with contemporary painting strategies involving frontality, flatness, layering and instantaneity. As in this work, these paintings often featured desolate, built scenes of skeletal and flayed structures, baroque facades, the great concentric holes of open pit mines and abandoned machines sprawled in ruin. These paintings were publicly exhibited in prominent venues, discussed in major art journals and daily press publications, and acquired by museums.

Dean Byington official website. Copyright held by the artist.

Dean Byington

Entire artwork

Yes. The image will not affect the commercial value of the original work or limit the copyright holder's rights or ability to distribute the original due to its low resolution and the general workings of the art market, which values the actual work of art. Because of the low resolution, illegal copies could not be made.

The image has contextual significance in that it serves an informational and educational purpose as the primary means of illustrating a key body of work in Dean Byington's career in the 2010s: his largely black-and-white mixed-media paintings and collages which depicted surreal, invented universes that explored historical and sociopolitical themes in a more expansive, cinematic manner in terms of vastness (their large scale and God’s-eye views), sweeping subjects (climate change, terrorism, urban sprawl) and time (a sense of layer centuries of history including the potential future) than his earlier work. The paintings fused intricate collages of tiny, hand-cut photocopies from old illustrated books and his own drawings screened with oil paint on linen, which were then hand-painted. The packed, immersive post-apocalyptic works were compared to the work of Hieronymus Bosch, Albrecht Dürer, M. C. Escher and filmmaker Terry Gilliam, the surrealist collages of Max Ernst and Kurt Schwitters, and the mid-20th century Bay Area assemblage and psychedelic aesthetic. Because the article is about an artist and his work, the omission of the image would significantly limit a reader's understanding and ability to understand this key later stage, body of work and style, which brought Byington additional recognition through exhibitions in major venues, coverage by major critics and publications and museum acquisitions. Byington's work of this type and this series, as well as this specific work, are discussed in the article and by critics cited in the article.

There is no free equivalent of this or any other of this series by Dean Byington, so the image cannot be replaced by a free image.

The image use is minimal in that a full artwork image is important to include to properly represent the art. Further, because the artist produced very distinct bodies of work in terms of aesthetic and technique, this image is required to accurately convey a significant and highly relevant period of his career and its development.