This painting with added elements is an excellent example of Joe Doyle’s abstract illusionist art. It is composed of acrylic on shaped canvas with fabric elements added. It measures 36 x 43 inches. Each edge has been painted except for the left edge which has a frame. The right edge has been shaped. The black elements of the tent-like structure are added fabric. The work is signed, numbered and dated on the reverse. As well it bears a label from Harcourts Gallery, a gallery in San Francisco during the 1980s and 1990s. The work is in very good condition with minimal wear to the edges.


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Joe Doyle (1941-2020) established himself as a painter during the movement toward new abstraction in San Francisco in the mid-seventies. Stylistically his work evolved from photo-realist renderings of aircraft which exaggerated differences in focus of background and foreground" By 1975 his imagery shifted to arrangements of flat, geometric forms and tubular squiggles in a trompe l'oeil manner that created the illusion of a multi-layered, three dimensional space. By the late 1970s Doyle, along with James Havard, Jack Reilly, George D. Green, and others, had attained national prominence working this style now referred to as Abstract Illusionism. Doyle and others were included in 'Reality of Illusion' a large touring exhibition of primarily American illusionist artists organized by the University of Southern California and The Denver Art Museum.

 

Doyle enrolled at San Francisco State College receiving his M.A. in 1971. From 1971 to 1975 he was a photo-realist transferring images from photographs using airbrush techniques on canvas, occasionally adding political satire into the subject matter, as in "Ice House (1971).

 

Doyle was an instructor and co-chair of the Digital Arts Department at Berkeley City College. His most recent work delved into the realm of both 3-D realism and 3-D non-objective abstraction.

 

Here is an autobiographical excerpt from his former website:

 

"In the seventies and eighties I helped establish Abstract Illusionism, one of the earliest examples of Post-modernism, working with tromp l’oeil techniques and the history of abstraction from geometric to action painting. I explored the relationship between formal and illusory elements in painting, challenging the dominance of the flat picture plane, which was ‘de rigueur’ for the abstract expressionists.

During the nineties I dropped illusion from the equation and concentrated on formal abstraction. Focusing on (real) surface textures and process painting, I was concerned with the sensual experience of an elegantly painted surface at an intimate

scale.

Since 2000 I have been working with advanced computer generated imaging techniques, synthesizing my previous painting experience into a new medium that offers greater possibilities for image making and personal expression. As I attempt to define contemporary aesthetics, tromp l’oeil space has reentered my work as illusionary textures, 3D modeling, and perspective, although not as confrontational as in my previous abstract illusionist paintings. I have also appropriated those works of art from the past, which have formed a great deal of my personal memory in order to contextualize our contemporary experience."


 

Solo exhibitions

Group exhibitions