Byron McKeeby

McKeeby, son of Byron J. and Miriam McKeeby, was born on February 27, 1936, in Humboldt, Iowa, later growing up in Cedar Rapids, IA.[3][4] Growing up after the Great Depression and during the World War II 1940s, McKeeby knew the hardships of the day, particularly after his father died while he was still a teenager.[5] McKeeby's youth, however, was enriched by his mother's interest in art, particularly Rosa Bonheur.[6]

McKeeby was the grandson of Byron H. McKeeby, a Cedar Rapids dentist, who posed as the farmer in Grant Wood's American Gothic.[7][8][9] Ultimately he referenced this relationship in an untitled, uneditioned lithograph (embedded with the wording 'The American Farmer Can Grow Just About Anything') known to be from 1984, which features his grandfather, Byron H. McKeeby's image.[10][11]

Like his parents, McKeeby was a Coe College graduate and while at Coe he became interested in art through Professor Marvin Cone, who was a lifelong friend of painter Grant Wood.[12][13] Years later in a Coe College interview McKeeby acknowledged that Cone was "an extraordinary human, and a lasting influence on his life".[14]

Upon graduating Coe College in 1959 he proceeded to the Art Institute of Chicago where he studied painting, graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1963. Several of his class contemporaries, one of which was Jim Nutt, ultimately formed The Hairy Who, a group reflective of the 1960s independence of American art.[15]

Subsequently, McKeeby earned a Master of Fine Arts at Tulane University studying with innovative printmaker Jim Steg, it was there his interest and rising success as a lithographer was realized. His Master's thesis paper focused on the macabre in art, entitled, "The Grotesque as a Positive Element in Art".[16] A representative image from that time is "Okina".[17]

Post M.F.A McKeeby was awarded a Tamarind Institute Artist-Teacher Fellow in 1965 where he was mentored by Garo Antreasian deepening his interest and expertise in Lithography. Guiding principles of the Tamarind Institute of creating master artist-printers, embracing diversity of style and fostering collaboration were employed in Fall of 1965 when McKeeby joined the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Art Department (now called the School of Art). There he became professor and head of the printmaking program until his death.[18]

Byron and Ana McKeeby were married from 1964 to 1981, with two sons.[19][20] Upon Byron's untimely death in 1984, he left sons Paulo and Neal, who had influenced his imagery.[21][22][23][24]

As an educator, McKeeby taught all levels and aspects of printmaking during his tenure. Students in his printmaking classes learned lithography, engraving, viscosity printing, linocut, wood engraving, collagraphy, screen printing and monotyping. His expertise and teaching style was epitomized by then Art Department Head, Donald F. Kurka, as being 'dedicated to a professional standard of printmaking' and having 'a high tolerance toward divergent attitudes'.[25] Influencing McKeeby was his education and contemporary printmakers pushing technical experimentation.[26] In support of this McKeeby hosted workshops with academic and professional printmakers, such as Donald Saff, for student benefit. In 1981 the university built a new Art & Architecture building; it was opportunity for McKeeby to design a state-of-the-art printshop in support of teaching and creation.[27][28] Subsequent Printmaking Professor, Beauvais Lyons, credited McKeeby's open studio design that accommodates traditional and experimental techniques in a 2015 statement "The open plan encourages a climate of experimentation and the use of all techniques".[29] Further realization of the concept became part of "the incorporation of computer methods in print education".[29]

McKeeby's work was dominated by black and white lithographs. His interest lead him to personally advance what had nearly become a dying art of stone lithography.[30] Drawing was essential for McKeeby, evidenced in the retrospective exhibit title, however, he often used experimentation techniques such as acetone transfer of printed images.[31]

Early works incorporated transfer images with drawn compositions.[32] His lifetime of work defied singular categorization; Art Historian Dale G Cleaver described McKeeby's art as 'posited dualities of existence: the contrasts of good and evil, compassion and violence, mechanical and organic, esoteric and mundane' which 'didn't fit any contemporary styles'.[33][25] McKeeby's art was also referred to as puckish, mischievously playful.[34] His interest spanned social issues,[35] the natural world,[36][37] language [38] and through his personal use of imagery he achieved humor and satire.[39] McKeeby's creative process was observed and commented upon by fellow printmaker, Brian R. Wells, as 'He was absorbed in the difference between improvisation and thinking a piece through'.[25]

Career-long McKeeby was active in exhibit competition and shown by invitation, his record was regional, national and international; he was awarded the Chairman's Prize at the 1983 International Biennial Print Exhibit ROC in Taipei, Taiwan.[40][41][42] McKeeby was described as prodigious by fellow Art Department faculty F. Clark Stewart and in total McKeeby amassed 200 group exhibitions and 19 one—man shows over twenty-two years.[43][44]

Indicative of McKeeby's energy and inertia, and at the time of his sudden death, the beginnings of an invitational show of printmakers and their student's work entitled "Printmakers Select Printmakers" was in progress. The Art Department with Gallery Directory Sam Yates' guidance from having worked with McKeeby on the invitational, realized the show in McKeeby's honor February 22- March 16, 1985.

Donald F Kurka wrote in dedication "Ironically, with his untimely death in November 1984, he unwittingly created his own memorial and final tribute to the major passion of his life: printmaking. It would be hard to imagine a more appropriate way to honor and exemplify his lifelong commitment to the field than to bring together the work of some of America's best printmakers and the work of some of their present and former students. His respect and support for his printmaking colleagues across the nation and, in turn, their influence on a new generation of printmakers demonstrate through the exhibition, Byron's devotion to printmaking in America and its future.

His life's work centered around making prints, teaching others to make prints and supporting his fellow printmakers. An artist's artist, a teacher's teacher, as a totally committed colleague, Byron had few equals. His personal integrity and the force of his dedication made all of us work harder, be truer to the best in ourselves and, above all, make art, not just talk art. He selected this invitational show on those same principles - choosing people who are equally engaged in their art as demonstrated through the quality of what they produce."[45][46]

In 1986 the Ewing Gallery, School of Art at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, mounted a posthumous retrospective exhibit entitled Byron McKeeby : prints and drawings from 1964-1984 held February 16 - March 20, 1986.[47][48] The exhibit comprised sixty-six framed works selected from McKeeby's personal oeuvre by Art Historian Dale G. Cleaver who also wrote the catalog essay; the exhibit was coordinated by Gallery Director Sam Yates. After opening in Knoxville, the exhibit traveled primarily through the southeast.[49][50][51] An exhibit catalog was produced featuring a six-page essay with 20 black and white plates. The color cover reproduction is of a 1979 McKeeby viscosity print, Untitled(frog).[52][53]

Additionally McKeeby was honored during the 20th Annual Southern Graphics Council Conference, March 19–21, 1992, with a show of thirty retrospective prints.[54] A reception and talk, 'A Tribute To Byron McKeeby', by Dale Cleaver honored McKeeby's art, leadership, professional accomplishments, high standards and teaching.[55]

Great art concerns itself not with art, but with awakening the human consciousness to itself.

— Byron McKeeby [14][56][57]