Passer d'un rêve à l'autre / To pass from one dream to another
Ralph Eugene Meatyard – The Family Album of Lucybelle Crater, 1974
2026
Book cover
Photographs by Ralph Eugene Meatyard, text by Jonathan
Williams
Venue
Born in 1925, Normal, Illinois, United States
Died in 1972, Lexington, Kentucky, United States
Masked figures occupy the everyday landscapes of post-war Kentucky: suburban streets, front gardens, wooded clearings and abandoned buildings. Shaped by histories of settler colonial expansion, these settings become the stage for Ralph Eugene Meatyard’s carefully composed photographs, presented here as archival reproductions. Family members and friends appear beneath grotesque latex masks whose repetition binds different bodies into a strange collective presence, unsettling the individuality on which the family portrait depends. For Meatyard, theatricality sharpened perception, casting both identity and ownership as performances enacted through shared rituals and inherited roles.
Ralph Eugene Meatyard’s photographs are often populated by enigmatic figures and marked by experimentation with photographic techniques of abstraction. Without distinguishing between what might be ‘real’ and what might be ‘hidden’, they give each appearance the quality of a mask.
With the support of the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body | With the support of the Australian Embassy in France and the French Australian Cultural Exchange Foundation (FACEF) | With the support of Fondation Bullukian
Discover also
- Passer d'un rêve à l'autre / To pass from one dream to another
Birke Gorm – sit-up (sit-down), 2022 - ongoing
Museum of Contemporary Art of Lyon (macLyon)
- Passer d'un rêve à l'autre / To pass from one dream to another
Robert Filliou – L’Histoire chuchotée de l’art, 1995
Museum of Contemporary Art of Lyon (macLyon)
- Passer d'un rêve à l'autre / To pass from one dream to another
Álvaro Urbano – Untitled, 2026
Museum of Contemporary Art of Lyon (macLyon)
- Passer d'un rêve à l'autre / To pass from one dream to another
Béatrice Balcou – Placebos, 2014-2026
Museum of Contemporary Art of Lyon (macLyon)
- Passer d'un rêve à l'autre / To pass from one dream to another
Barbara Breitenfellner – WVZ 236, 361, 394, 426, 450, 465, 520, 540, 582, 590, 664, 706, 760, 798, 800, 801, 819, 824, 826, 827, 828, 834, 877, 2012 – 2026
Museum of Contemporary Art of Lyon (macLyon)
- Passer d'un rêve à l'autre / To pass from one dream to another
Robert Filliou – Teaching and Learning as Performing Arts Part II - Breakfasting Together, If You Wish, 1979
Museum of Contemporary Art of Lyon (macLyon)
- Passer d'un rêve à l'autre / To pass from one dream to another
June Crespo – TW, TG (III), 2026
June Crespo – The dancing column (III), 2026
June Crespo – The dancing column (IV), 2026
Museum of Contemporary Art of Lyon (macLyon)
- Passer d'un rêve à l'autre / To pass from one dream to another
Karlos Gil – Origin, 2023
Museum of Contemporary Art of Lyon (macLyon)
- Passer d'un rêve à l'autre / To pass from one dream to another
Luke Willis Thompson – Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa, 2024–2026
Museum of Contemporary Art of Lyon (macLyon)