File:Joe Ray Flaming Star Nebula.jpeg

Painting by Joe Ray, Flaming Star Nebula #1 (acrylic and spray paint on canvas, 96" x 60", 2017). The image illustrates a key body of work in Joe Ray's career from the late 1970s to the 2020s: his largely abstract "Nebula Paintings." These celestial landscapes were painted with acrylics, spray paint and mixed media. While earlier Nebula paintings combined gesture and atmospherics with social commentary, later Nebula paintings such as this one, have been identified as more vibrant and hypnotic with elements of post-Impressionism and actionist painting, and concerns such as emotional allegory and space-travel science. This body of work and work was publicly exhibited in prominent exhibitions, discussed in art journals and press publications.

Artist Joe Ray. Copyright held by the artist.

Joe Ray (artist)

Entire artwork

Yes

The image serves an informational and educational purpose as the primary means of illustrating a key body of work in Joe Ray's career dating from the late 1970s to his later work, when he produced largely abstract, celestial landscapes employing acrylics, spray paint and mixed media that he called "Nebula Paintings." The paintings explored phenomenological qualities of the night sky—its remote depth of color, refraction of space, dark air and white light—and themes involving imagination, identity and emotional allegory. Earlier Nebula paintings from the 1980s combined colorful gestural and atmospherics with a careful use of pointed terms often reflecting the racial context of their making; later Nebula paintings have been described as more vibrant and hypnotic with elements of post-Impressionism, actionist painting, and suggestions of emotional allegory and space-travel science. Because the article is about an artist and his work, the omission of the image would significantly limit a reader's understanding and ability to understand this major body of work, which brought Ray later recognition through exhibitions and coverage by major critics and publications. Ray's work of this type and this series is discussed in the article and by critics cited in the article.

There is no free equivalent of this or any other of this series by Joe Ray, so the image cannot be replaced by a free image.

The image will not affect the value of the original work or limit the copyright holder's rights or ability to distribute the original due to its low resolution and the general working of the art market, which values the actual work of art. Because of the low resolution, illegal copies could not be made.