Tony De los Reyes
American, 1960-
1851 (#3), 2011
ink and oil on linen
33 1/2 x 56 1/2 in.
SBMA, Museum purchase
2011.4
Undated photo
COMMENTS
Tony de los Reyes is a Los Angeles based artist who has been exhibiting professionally for over 10 years, including solo exhibitions at Howard House in Seattle (2003 & 2009), Carl Berg Gallery in Los Angeles (2005, 2006 & 2008), and Rio Hondo College Art Gallery in Whittier, CA (2007). He has been included in many group exhibitions, such as The Frustrated Landscape, curated by Tyler Stallings, at the Guggenheim Art Gallery, Chapman University in Orange (2002); 100% Acid Free, curated by Micaela Giovanotti, at White Columns in New York (2004); Art on Paper, at the Weatherspoon Art Museum in Greensboro, North Carolina (2008); Sea Change, curated by Michael Duncan, RHC Art Gallery, Rio Hondo College (2009); and The Old, Weird America at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (2008). Traveled to the deCordova Museum and Sculpture Park in Lincoln, MA; and Frye Art Museum, Seattle, WA. He lectures often and teaches high school. His first solo museum exhibition, "Chasing Moby-Dick: Selected works by Tony de los Reyes" was at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art in fall 2010.
Few other works of classic American literature are as captivating and fascinating as Herman Melville’s epic novel, Moby-Dick. Commonly recognized as “The Great American Novel,” it is loaded with fact, allegory, idealism, obsession, and more. Tony de los Reyes’ encounter with this great work occurred in part through his lifelong exploration of historic ships—vessels integral to modern commercial and military infrastructures that have enthralled him since childhood.
"Chasing Moby-Dick: Selected works by Tony de los Reyes", at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art in fall 2010, brought together a selection of de los Reyes’ works produced during the past five years, all inspired by Melville’s great tome. Drawing upon such popular subject matter risks coming off as worn or illustrative, but de los Reyes’ treatment effectively fortifies as well as transcends its source. His distinctive approach to imagery involves his dedicated understanding of the book and, among other factors, an allusion to tropes prevalent throughout the history of art.
The artist’s use of different styles of artmaking, combined with the use of various materials, including dark inks and bronze, suggests the complex multiple perspectives in Melville’s narrative. Yet the most powerful effect of de los Reyes’ work is its examination of this literary masterpiece as a mythic vision of America. The artist's distinctive comparisons of Ahab and the U.S., in particular, enhance the insatiable and potentially self-destructive nature of both.
Titled after the date Moby-Dick was first published, this painting most pointedly illustrates the notion of Herman Melville’s novel as a metaphor for America’s historic and enduring quest for power. The American flag is depicted with 31 stars, as it would have appeared as of July 4, 1851, the year California was admitted into the union. This is also the year Moby-Dick was first published. Depicted by the artist backwards — as if flipped horizontally — and juxtaposed with a dark, tumultuous sea, the flag is partially transparent, as if the viewer is looking through the clear side of a one-way mirror on which the flag image is printed. In this sense, the viewer becomes America (the flag), gazing upon, reflecting, or perhaps even complicit in the turbulence of the waters on the other side.
This is one of three paintings that de los Reyes created as a part of his 1851 series. The first, depicting a similar background with black stars and stripes (as opposed to the white found here), was featured prominently in the artist’s solo exhibition at SBMA (fall 2010), as well as in the publicity generated for that and the “Reframing America” theme that overarched all five exhibitions throughout the museum during that time.
This particular painting reveals his signature use of ink on canvas in the dark water imagery in the background, which is crucial to his oeuvre. The generous overlay of white paint (evidenced in thick brushwork on the surface) speaks not only to the overlay of images from art historic sources (classic minimal painting in this case), but also to his equally distinctive use of the color white as a conceptual and formal trope.
- SBMA Collections Committee Addendum, February 7, 2011
SBMA CURATORIAL LABELS
This painting comes from a series that reflects on Herman Melville’s "Moby-Dick" and the violence that threads through American history. No longer red, white, and blue, this flag is backwards, superimposed on a stormy ocean, and has 31 stars. In 1851, California became the 31st state and completed the expansion of the United States across the North American continent. That same year, Herman Melville published "Moby-Dick", a novel about the monomaniacal ship captain Ahab, who circled the globe trying to find and kill the white whale that ate his leg. Ahab’s unrelenting quest is like the United State’s expansion all the way to California and the Pacific. In fact, the aritst says that the ocean “is not always beautiful but inky, black and disturbing.” This black and white flag quietly suggests the terrible reality of American western expansion, which sought to carry slavery into newly formed states and subjected indigenous people to murder, dispossession, and genocide.
- Contemporary Gallery Opening, 2021
The work of Los-Angeles based artist Tony de los Reyes focuses on reinterpreting historical, political, and literary works. #1851 is titled after the year California was admitted into the union, as well as the publication date of Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick. Here the American flag is depicted in reverse, positioning the viewer on “the other side” of the iconic image. He has also juxtaposed it against a dark, tumultuous sea, alluding to actual and psychological turbulence. The painting pointedly positions Moby-Dick as a metaphor for the country’s historic and enduring quest for power, while problematizing the often mythic vision of America.
- Ridley-Tree Rotation, 2018
Tony de los Reyes carries the theme of merging iconic subject matter and historic aesthetic styles further in this exhibition of paintings, drawings, and sculpture. For the past five years, his attention has been fixated on what is referred to as the Great American Novel—Herman Melville's Moby-Dick (1851). The style of these works, which are the focus of this exhibition, references Abstract Expressionism and Minimalism, movements associated with rugged individualism and "pure" materiality. The depiction of various nautical imagery with various materials, including dark inks and bronze, alludes to the complex multiple perspectives in the narrative. Yet the most powerful effect of this work is its examination of Melville's epic as a mythic vision of America. The artist's distinctive comparisons of Ahab and the U.S. enhance the insatiable and potentially self-destructive nature of both.
- Chasing Moby-Dick: Selected Works by Tony de los Reyes, 2010-11