TIM LIDDY

“Who Can Beat Nixon” (1970) Presidential Sweepstakes 2006

Oil and enamel on copper, plywood back

Signed in script: Tim Liddy “circa 1970” 2006, red circular ring

Provenance: William Shearburn Gallery (St. Louis, MO)

H: 11 ¾” x W: 9” x D: 2”

With his recent paintings, Liddy has both reasserted the construct of hyperrealist painting and developed a thoroughly unique advancement of that mode by extending the cultural reality of the indexed original. Based on the illustrated box lids of vintage board games, Liddy has recontextualized a subject, which evokes the underlying rules of life. Painted on copper or steel in the precise dimensions of the original, the metal is then manipulated to demonstrate the exact rips and tears from years of usage and includes trompe-l’oeil renditions of the scotch tape that might be holding the cardboard box together, the assorted stains, or the various graffiti of time. Liddy leaves no possibility of ambivalence, these works speak to a concurrent understanding of their original object identity and to themselves as works of art engaged in historical and psychological dialogue.