Llyn Foulkes

'Crucifixion' by Llyn Foulkes, 1985

'Saddle Peak', oil, acrylic and photographs on canvas by Llyn Foulkes, 1984, The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu

Llyn Foulkes is an American artist born in Yakima, Washington in 1939 and educated at the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles. He is a painter, conceptual artist and assemblage artist, although he is best known for his pop art images of eroded rocks, to which he often applies labels, as if they might be postcards. Starting in 1963, and for more than 35 years, Foulkes has been working on a series of works that comprise Behind a Rock and a Hard Place, which is aimed at “exposing the fallacy of the American dream, the myth of the American West, and some blatant contradictions in American life”.

References

Llyn Foulkes: Fifty Paintings, Collages and Prints from Southern California Collections: A Survey Exhibition 1959-1974 Newport Beach: Newport Harbor Art Museum 1974

Llyn Foulkes: The Sixties New York: Kent Fine Art 1987

Brooks, Rosetta Soul Searching Artforum Summer 1990 pp. 130-131

Desmarais, Charles Proof: Los Angeles Art and the Photograph 1960—1980 Los Angeles: Fellows of Contemporary Art, Laguna Beach: Laguna Art Museum 1992

Schimmel, Paul Helter Skelter Los Angeles: Museum of Contemporary Art 1992

Knode, Marilu et al. Llyn Foulkes: Between a Rock and a Hard Place Fellows of Contemporary Art/ Laguna Art Museum, CA 1995

Duncan, Michael A Better Mouse Trap Art in America January 1997 p. 82-87

Whiting, Cecile Pop L.A.: Art and the City in the 1960s Berkeley: University of California Press c. 2006 pp.43-47

Llyn Foulkes New York: Kent Gallery c. 2007 pp. 1-72

External links

• Interview with Llyn Foulkes