File:Dean Byington Underground (detail) 2006.jpg

Painting by Dean Byington, Underground #1 (detail, oil on linen, 46" x 42", 2006). The image illustrates the first significant decade and body of work in Dean Byington's career in the 2000s, when he produced large, mixed-media monochrome color paintings whose labyrinthine landscapes evoked fairy tales, Victorian etchings, and utopian and dystopian science-fiction. The image is from his "Underground" series, which combined seamless amalgams of dense imagery reworked from diverse sources and overall washes of color that suggested minimalist monochromes. They were populated edge-to-edge with by overgrown vegetation and whimsical, anthropomorphic animals, which upon close inspection, were embroiled in sometimes-savage conflicts. Reviews compared their pattern-like, all-over compositions to thee motifs to ornate wallpaper, Chinese scrolls and modernist painting. 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

detail

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 early body of work in Dean Byington's career in the 2000s: his large, hyper-detailed mixed-media monochrome color paintings of labyrinthine landscapes that served as settings for enigmatic allegories on nature and culture. Evoking fairy tales gone awry, the precision of centuries-old etchings and cartography, and utopian and dystopian science-fiction, they consisted of seamless amalgams of images reworked from diverse sources, including his own stylized drawings and hand-cut photocopies from old illustrated books, which he unified with drawing, hand-painting and washes of monochromatic color that suggested imagery seen through an aquarium or fog. A close-up image is particularly important to convey the level of detailed drawing and imagery in the work, which would be perceivable in a full image. 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 developmental stage, body of work and style, which brought Byington initial recognition through exhibitions in major venues, coverage by major critics and publications. 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 it conveys important information that a full artwork image at a limited fair-use size cannot due to the uniquely hyper-detailed nature of the work. By providing a close-up of the artist's style and imagery, it is significantly more informative for a viewer. It is also a further protection (along with the low resolution) against affecting commercial value.