Mural No. GU-43752 (All Rights Reserved)

William Alvin Blayney, Mural No. GU-43752 (All Rights Reserved), 1969, oil, pen, and pencil on masonite, 37 ¹⁄₄ x 24 ³⁄₄ in. (94.6 x 62.9 cm.), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Chuck and Jan Rosenak and museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment, 1997.124.6

Artwork Details

Title: Mural No. GU-43752 (All Rights Reserved)
Artist: William Alvin Blayney
Date: 1969
Location: Smithsonian American Art Museum
/
Luce Foundation Center
/
3rd Floor
/
22B
Dimensions: 37 ¹⁄₄ x 24 ³⁄₄ in. (94.6 x 62.9 cm.)
Credit Line: Gift of Chuck and Jan Rosenak and museum purchase through the Luisita L. and Franz H. Denghausen Endowment
Mediums: pencil
oil
ink
Mediums Description: oil, pen, and pencil on masonite
Classifications: Painting
Subjects: Religion — angel
Emblem — cross
Religion — Christianity
Fantasy — dragon
Figure group
Object Number: 1997.124.6
Linked Open Data: https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/1997.124.6

Artwork Description

This painting depicts events from the Revelation of Saint John the Divine, the last book of the New Testament that recounts his vision of the Apocalypse. William Alvin Blayney was a Pentecostal minister who filled his paintings with images from the Bible, as well as supernatural creatures from his own imagination (Chuck and Jan Rosenak, Museum of American Folk Art Encyclopedia, 1990). He created a unique language of symbols, numbers, and phrases that evokes the Pentecostal practice of “speaking in tongues.”