Ron Griffin (American, b. 1954). "The Face of a Card" polyurethane on wood panel, 1992 and "Idea of a Musical Nature" ink, burn and polyurethane on wood panel, 1992. Both signed and dated in pencil on verso. These two mesmerizing works by Ron Griffin at first look like abstractions in orange on white; however, closer examination reveals the artist's interest in realism and 19th century American trompe l'oeil. Griffin paints ordinary objects - for instance "Idea of a Musical Nature" represents a common index card and "The Face of a Card" presents a playing card - but he brings these objects all the way up to the picture plane, and then builds them up further with layers of polyurethane to make them appear to be the real articles. This said, in addition to this trompe l'oeil effect, his art still conjures avant-garde abstractionist movements such as de Stijl and Suprematism. Size: 10" L x 14.125" W (25.4 cm x 35.9 cm)

Excerpt from Ron Griffin's artist statement: "I roam American desert areas, especially the Mojave, finding objects left behind by people who tried, for whatever reason, to get away from other people. The semi-melancholy debris of free enterprise, the envelopes, letters, original poetry, photographs, pornography, government correspondence, collection threats, parole notifications, underwear, toys, tidbits of the objects with which they surrounded themselves, are things I find poignant. My intention is not to exploit this information for the voyeuristic thrill, but to somehow preserve the picture of these lives—maybe because of my own socioeconomic struggles and realization of the temporal nature of our existence. Proletariat realism."

Provenance: private Idledale, Colorado, USA collection; ex-Ginny Williams collection of Denver, Colorado

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#171267

"Idea of a Musical Nature" would benefit from cleaning to periphery of the image, but otherwise, both artworks are very nice, and both are signed and dated in pencil on verso. In addition, both have Ginny Williams Family Foundation labels on the verso.