Kenneth Riley
1919-2015
Set of two (2): Ceremonial Pipe and study
MEDIUM: Oil on canvas; acrylic on board
DIMENSIONS: 36 x 26 inches; 6 3/4 x 4 3/4 inches
Signed/CA lower right
SOLD FOR: $45,000.00
Including Buyers Premium
2026 - APRIL,
LOT 177
Additional Information
Provenance:
Private collection, Texas
Exhibited:
Cowboy Artists of America Museum: A Passion for the West, Kerrville, TX, July-Sept 1997
Kenneth Riley’s work was firmly planted in the modern era in terms of composition and design, even as he turned to historical material as his subjects. This modern sensibility can be seen in Ceremonial Pipe, which is so meticulously designed that every line, every form and every shape has a visual resolution, and even thematic continuation, as the viewer’s eye is marched through the composition. Even Riley admits he became slightly obsessed about these concepts in the 1960s as he taught art classes in Utah. “Design, I decided, was the skeleton upon which everything in a painting
hangs,” he wrote in West of Camelot: The Historical Paintings of Kenneth Riley. In the book, Riley writes about “The Idea,” which is the original motivation or point of emphasis. “The Idea is the means by which the artist imposes order,” Riley continues. “Through order comes clarification and communication. Everything in a painting subordinates to the Idea, which motivates all other elements, from the type of line, to the character of shape and the relationships of colors. Unlike the camera, which is limited to arrangements as they exist in space, artists arrange in order to present or dramatize an Idea. In so doing, design—not the subject—carries the impact of the picture.”