Yale School of Art Exhibits Work of Acclaimed Painter Richard Lytle

An exhibition of work by artist and longtime Yale professor Richard Lytle will be at the Yale School of Art September 30-October 19.

Lytle, who came to Yale as a student in the 1950s and is now retiring after more than 40 years on the faculty, has continued to pursue his career as an artist throughout his academic tenure.

At Yale, he is especially known for his popular course on color, in which he follows the tradition of his friend and mentor Josef Albers. Lytle will continue to teach this course, which remains a perennial favorite among students.

As an administrator, Lytle has been Acting Dean-on three occasions-and director of graduate and undergraduate studies at Yale. During his only hiatus from Yale, 1963-67, he served as dean of Silvermine College of Art.

Richard Benson, the present dean of the Yale School of Art, attributes Lytle’s profound influence on the School to the “artistic underpinnings” of his life. “He paints and paints-always tackling new ground, always exercising the principles he teaches, and always facing the true test of an artistic life in the plain walls and beckoning canvases of his Woodbridge studio,” writes Benson in an introduction to the catalogue accompanying the exhibition.

Lytle has exhibited often and widely in galleries and museums across the country, and much of his work is in private and corporate collections. The Museum of Modern Art in New York and the National Museum in Washington, D.C. are among the many venues where his work is publicly displayed.

With a range of work, from giant oil paintings-measuring up to 7’ X 10’-to watercolors and ink drawings, the exhibition offers a sampling of Lytle’s creative output from 1967 to the present.

The exhibition, which is free and open to the public, will be at the Holcombe T. Green, Jr. Hall Gallery, 1156 Chapel Street. The Gallery is open every day of the week, including weekends, 10 a.m.-6 p.m.