JOHN TWEDDLE
American, born 1938

EASY MONEY acrylic on shaped canvas 78” x 60” 1972

EASY MONEY
acrylic on shaped canvas
78” x 60”
1972

 
Nationally-known artist John Tweddle was raised in a trucker’s family, and lived on the road for months at a time. He developed early on the rare capability of recording both the romance and the difficulties of the life that sped past him. Tweddle moved about the country, spending time in Missouri, Georgia, New York, Oklahoma, California, and New Mexico. He produced biting, poignant, incisive commentaries on American life. Tweddle’s narrative paintings often have frames within frames and depict people or animals in repeated, simultaneous activities, challenging the viewer to search and “read” their meanings, much like viewing an early Renaissance mural. John Tweddle moved to New York from his Kentucky hometown in 1969. Considered by most as an ‘outsider artist’, his works mostly explore ideas of class and his own identity growing up as a Southerner. Drawing a lot from the culture of his era, Tweddle’s paintings often depict naked women, trucks and peace signs. Influential art advocate Robert Scull, among the first to champion artists like Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, and James Rosenquist avidly collected many of Tweddle’s naive, folkloric paintings and drawings. Strongly coloured and patterned with recurring motifs like dollar signs and crosshatching, Tweddle drew liberally from the “low art” traditions of cartoons and comic books while mounting an intellectually rigorous exploration of capitalism, iconography and the counterculture revolution. Tweddle’s authentic representation of the American experience far removed from the New York’s cultural establishment highlighted a growing concern with the interplay of art and commerce. By 1980, Tweddle had retreated from New York’s cultural milieu, preferring instead to work in relative isolation. John Tweddle exhibited at many institutions and galleries internationally including MoMA P.S.1, The Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht. He received two NEA grants and his work is in the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

 

John Tweddle’s Views on God
by Lanell Burk
December 2022

John’s views on God and religion evolved over time. In the 70s and 80s he considered himself a Christian, but over time became disillusioned with the hypocrisy he saw in organized religion.

He eventually formed his own views and did not participate in any organized religion. Below are some quotes from John regarding God and spirituality.

2008: “There either is or there ain’t a God. What I think or believe won’t change that situation one little bit. Most God concepts, probably all are simply human fantasies. “GOD” is created in man’s image and from our imagination. We could sit around for 10,000 years and make up concepts of what God is or isn’t, but unless GOD itself plainly revealed its identity to most everybody clearly, then it is all just a dream world, like my “ART”. Obviously a being so magnificent and extremely intelligent, with eternal and unfathomable power, could quite easily reveal its identity to us mortals. So I feel there is some grand creative force driving the Universe but we don’t have to know particularly what that is. I just hope God finds my life and art entertaining. And maybe, YOU will also.”

2011: “in the beginning there was no beginning, and no ending, except in the minds of some human creatures. And ‘god’ didn’t say anything because this ‘god’ was invented by humans.”

2014: “‘Art’ is a ritual attempt to become one with the infinite.”

In 2011, John created a book about an intelligent sub-atomic particle that he called “Yurks”. Yurks are the “smallest possible infinite building blocks of the infinite universe” and have god-like qualities. It’s pretty out-there, but I think these ideas influenced his later work.

           

SOLO SHOWS

2014 • John Tweddle, Curated by Alanna Heiss, Kayne Griffin, Los Angeles, CA

1999 • Tribute to Robert Scull, PS1 Contemporary Art Center, New York, NY, USA

1972 • John Tweddle, LoGuidice Gallery, NY, NY

1968 • John Tweddle, Noah Goldowsky Gallery, NY, NY

GROUP SHOWS

2022 • HOLIDAY, Art Sales & Research, NY

2021 • SUMMER LOVE, Art Sales & Research, NY

2020 • INTERNATIONAL POP, The Mayor Gallery, London

2020 • Anne Brown and John Tweddle: "Outsider Artworks from 60s-70s", Art Sales & Research, Inc.

2016 • May Day Salon, Rose Burlingham Projects, NYC, NYC, NY, USA

2010 • The Visible Vagina, David Nolan Gallery, New York, NY, USA

2009 • Exile on Main Street, Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht, Netherlands

1992 • Tampa Museum, Tampa, FL, USA

1992 • Greenville County Museum of Art, Greenville, SC

1987 • Texas Artists, James Corcoran Gallery, Santa Monica, CA, USA

1987 • Texas Artists, James Corcoran Gallery, New York City, NY, USA

1986 • San Antonio Artists, BLUE STAR ART SPACE, San Antonio, TX, USA

1984 • Landscape Painter, Ducal Palace, Gubbio, Province of Perugia, Italy

1984 • New Narrative Painters, Museo Rufino Tamayo, Mexico City, CDMX, Mexico

1983 • New Narrative Painters, Museum Rufino Tamayo, Mexico City, Mexico

1981 • Image Into Painting, PS1 Contemporary Art Center, New York, NY, USA

1980 • Movers: New Artists, MOMA, New York, NY, USA

1972 • Contemporary American Artists, Saint Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, MO, USA

1969 • Arp to Artschwager, Noah Goldowsky Gallery, New York, NY, USA

1968 •Arp to Artschwager, Noah Goldowsky Gallery, New York, NY, USA

1968 • NEA Grants to Southwest ArtistsWitte Museum, San Antonio, TX, USA