A largely self-taught photographer, Ralph Eugene Meatyard (American, 1925–1972) was a pioneering and inventive artist known for creating some of the most original images of the mid-twentieth century. His work defies easy categorization as he experimented across various genres and subjects, maintaining the ethos of an amateur throughout his career. Meatyard approached photography with a sense of affection, discovery, and surprise. He is best recognized for his staged scenes that suggest an absurd fantasy, often set in the dilapidated houses and banal suburban surroundings near his home in Lexington, Kentucky. These scenes, frequently featuring his family as actors and using props such as masks and dolls, reveal his search for inner truths amid the ordinary.
This exhibition at The High Museum in Atlanta, coinciding with the artist’s centenary, will showcase thirty-six prints from Meatyard’s first monograph (Gnomon Press, 1970)—one of only two books he published during his lifetime—which he intended as his definitive artistic statement. Through this idiosyncratic selection of images, the exhibition will explore how Meatyard’s singular approach and voracious curiosity expanded the expressive and conceptual potential of photography.
