For all our suspicions of naivete in art, this work is utterly disarming. What holds it all together is that Mr. Tweddle really knows how to paint.
Grace Glueck
July 1, 1983
“ART: REGINALD MARSH IN NEW YORK OF THE 30’S”
The New York Times
Excerpt:
John Tweddle (Blum-Helman Gallery, 20 West 57th Street): Back on the exhibition scene after a long hiatus, the work of John Tweddle – from Oklahoma – hasn’t changed much in style or subject matter. His trapezoidal canvases, painted from the viewpoint of a shrewd childfolk artist with a hip take on American life, are full of the damnedest things. They range from the simple portrayal of a smirking cat crowned by a halo, who has just eaten two pet birds, to a horrendous Crucifixion scene, depicting the dying Jesus surrounded by leering faces and such Yankee symbols as trucks, rockets and oil derricks.
Over all, there’s a tone of apocalypse to these canvases, which comment on nuclear holocaust, passages from the Bible and American materialism. Their structure is iconic, usually consisting of a vignette with a narrative subject, ringed by formal borders that incorporate all manner of signs and symbols. ”Vision From Oklahoma,” for example, shows a bronco buster set in a fiery ellipse and rimmed by a decorative montage of dollar signs (very prominent in Mr. Tweddle’s work), planes, derricks, cars and houses. It’s based on a passage from the Old Testament book of Daniel, which refers to corruption engendered by a vision. A lot more secular is ”History of Tweddle Art,” a comic-strip rundown of Mr. Tweddle’s painting styles and subjects, with a hand holding a joy stick in the lower left corner that, if pulled, might blow the painting apart.
For all our suspicions of naivete in art, this work is utterly disarming. What holds it all together is that Mr. Tweddle really knows how to paint.
