Landing
John O'Reilly
(American, 1930–2021)
2017
Medium/TechniquePaper collage
DimensionsSheet: 48.3 × 38.1 cm (19 × 15 in.)
Credit LineGift of James A. Tellin in honor of Howard and Katherine Yezerski
Accession number2021.1024
On View
Not on viewClassificationsCollages
DescriptionJohn O’Reilly, the Worcester, MA, artist, is esteemed for the highly personal photo-collages and montages that he made over many decades. O'Reilly's work was featured in the Whitney Biennial in 1995, and was the subject of a retrospective at the Addison Museum of American Art in 2002. In creating his intricate collage-like images, O'Reilly used old photographs and prints purchased at flea markets or received as gifts, reproductions torn out of books, as well as his own photographic imagery. Finding inspiration in the assemblage boxes of Joseph Cornell, he fashioned dream-like fantasies spun from ideas related to his own artistic creativity, his sexuality, and a passion for literature and art history.
Provenance2021, bequeathed by the artist to James Tellin, Worcester, MA; 2021, gift of James A. Tellin to the MFA. (Accession date: December 15, 2021)