Richard Lytle studio interview by Gorky's Granddaughter Feb. 2014

Richard Lytle traffics in enigma. He gets beyond the traditional limits of two painting genres by amalgamating them. In oil paintings and watercolor, Mr. Lytle, who is a professor of art at Yale University, combines conventional landscape with flower painting, and he does it so grandly that the results might almost be called operatic.  The landscapes he creates as a base are chilly ones, cold and windswept. Mr. Lytle seems to have borrowed from the bleak side of the Hudson River School, the one that favored blasted trees. But it is usually difficult to see the desolate forest for the abundance of flowers he sets in front of them. For this component he seems to have shifted over to those Hudson River School painters who made trips to South America. The flowers are especially animated. They engage in histrionics, bending, leaves curling into corkscrews. The flowers are a sign that deep emotion informs the bleakness. No matter how much viewers try to interpret the floral part of one of these paintings as a tempering, or gladdening element, they are thwarted because the entire composition must be considered, and the overall mood is indelibly surreal. from William Zimmer’s “ Personal Styles Centered on Enigma”, 1996  Richard Lytle has been exhibiting his work internationally since the 1950’s. He was a Teaching Assistant for Joseph Albers at Yale University School of Art and later dedicated more than 40 years as a professor of art. Lyle was also named Dean on three occasions and was the director of graduate and undergraduate studies program at Yale. His work has been included in many solo and group exhibitions including; the Yale University Art Gallery in New Haven, CT, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Coral Gables, FL, American Embassies around the world, Harvard University, Boston, MA, the Whitney Museum of American Art, NY, and the Worlds Fair in Seattle. Lytle has been awarded many prestigious awards including the Saint Gaudens Medal and the Citation for Professional Achievement from Cooper Union. His work is included in many public and private collections including Yale University, the Albrecht Gallery Museum of Arts, Columbia University, the DeCordova Museum, Lincoln, MA, the Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN, the Museum of Modern Art, NY, The National Museum of Art, Washington, DC and the Rockefeller Collection in NY.