On Saturday, February 16, 2019, “Ralph Steadman: A Retrospective” opens at the University of Kentucky Art Museum in Lexington. Featuring more than 100 original artworks and prints, this show examines the range of his projects in literature, theatre and television as well as product design.
UK Art Museum Director Stuart Horodner says, “With a sardonic eye, and the whip of his pen, Ralph Steadman challenges us to see the world in all its glory, grit, humor and beauty. Viewers of all ages will recognize his work, even if they don’t know his name.”
Over a span 65 years, Steadman’s work has made an undeniable mark on the world of illustration. His combining of expressive lines and emphatic ink splatters, is an immediately recognizable style of this visual storyteller.
Reorganized to travel throughout the U.S. by Sadie Williams, Ralph Steadman Art Collection executive director, the retrospective includes the sketches Steadman created as a student in the 1950s to present day drawings. Also on view are letters, press clippings and materials selected from the artist’s studio.
While Steadman’s work was used to illustrate such literary classics as “Treasure Island,” he also created images for and authored numerous books of his own for readers of all ages, including “Critical Critter,” “I. Leonardo,” “Sigmund Freud,” “Emergency Mouse” and “No Room to Swing a Cat.”
This exhibition features work from Steadman’s legendary collaborations with maverick journalist Hunter S. Thompson, including work documenting the Kentucky Derby for an article in Scanlan Monthly in 1970. In addition to his illustrations for Thompson’s “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,” he also created pieces for Private Eye, Punch, The Observer, The Guardian and Rolling Stone and others.
On view through May 5, 2019, for more information see: https://finearts.uky.edu/art-museum