Knoxville Museum of Art Acquires Two Yigal Ozeri Paintings

The Knoxville Museum of Art has announced its recent acquisition of two oil paintings by Yigal Ozeri, the photorealist painter currently enjoying an exhibition at the Lilienthal Gallery in Knoxville. The works, entitled “James Baldwin” and “Untitled; Sonia” are additions to the KMA’s contemporary painting collection joining other works by photorealist artists.

Donated by the Lilienthal Gallery, Ozeri’s “James Baldwin” is based on Richard Avedon’s 1945 photograph of the then 21-year old writer and soon-to-be civil rights leader. The connection between Baldwin and Knoxville-native Beauford Delaney make this acquisition particularly significant, as it will join the KMA’s “Portrait of James Baldwin” by Delaney in the museum’s collection.

The second acquisition, “Untitled; Sonia,” is a gift from New York dealer, gallery owner, and champion of photorealism Louis K. Meisel and his wife Susan. In a genre that often relies on brittleness and shock to engage the viewer, this particular Ozeri work uses its natural setting and saturated lushness to draw one into its subject, a young girl with red hair.

“Ozeri’s talent for capturing the beauty of the human form and the natural world is unparalleled,” offers KMA’s new executive director Steven Matijcio, “And we believe these pieces will resonate deeply with our visitors.”

KMA curator Stephen Wicks weighed in on the artist and his approach: “Ozeri’s paintings represent a compelling revitalization of a late twentieth-century photorealist tradition best known for detailed renderings of urban environments with an emphasis on surface textures and reflections. While Ozeri takes a similar technical approach, his interest in earlier romantic and abstract art movements inspires his depiction of figurative subjects in a manner that calls attention to the existence of an expressive internal dimension.”