The Cycle of Terror and Tragedy

The Cycle of Terror and Tragedy (detail) by Graydon Parrish

The Cycle of Terror and Tragedy is a painting by Graydon Parrish.

History

In 2002, Douglas Hyland, the director of the New Britain Museum of American Art, approached Graydon Parrish to create an allegorical tribute to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The completed painting, The Cycle of Terror and Tragedy, is over 18 feet long and is one of the largest realist paintings ever created in America. Today it hangs in the Chase Wing of the New Britain Museum of American Art next to figurative pieces by Julie Heffernan and Chuck Close.

Controversy

However, it has become somewhat controversial, both for its unabashedly academic style, inspired both by Jacques-Louis David and William Bouguereau, and for its highly symbolic content, said to express the cycle of denial and tragedy. It has been compared and contrasted with Pablo Picasso's Guernica and Théodore Géricault's The Raft of the Medusa, both comments on catastrophes.

References

http://nbmaa.wordpress.com/2010/09/10/collection-highlights-the-cycle-of-terror-and-tragedy-september-11-2001/

External links

• Genocchio, Benjamin (February 18, 2007). "The Tragedy of 9/11, on a Long Sheet of Canvas". The New York Times. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)