Julie Speed Explained

Julie Speed
Birth Place:Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Known For:Contemporary art

Julie Speed (born 1951) is an American artist. After dropping out of Rhode Island School of Design at age 19, Speed spent her twenties moving around the U.S. and Canada working pickup jobs (house painter, horse trainer, ad writer, farm worker, etc.) until moving to Texas in 1978, where she settled down and taught herself to paint. She switches back and forth regularly between oil painting, printmaking, collage, gouache and drawing, often combining disciplines. Two large volumes of her work, Julie Speed, Paintings, Constructions and Works on Paper, 2004 and Speed, Art 2003-2009 have been published by the University of Texas. She lives and works in Marfa, Texas. In her words, “I keep hours just like a real job, only longer, and in my spare time I read books, drink tequila, and garden.”

Style and technique

Speed paints surreal scenes in a realistic style with oil and gouache.[1] Her collages incorporate scientific illustrations and architectural drawings.[2] In collaboration with her husband Fran Christina, and Flatbed Press in Austin, Texas, she creates limited edition etchings.

"Speed’s work has been described as surrealist, hallucinogenic, iconoclastic and absurdist. Her detailed microorganism paintings, such as Blue or Metamporphoses, bring to mind the intricate scientific prints of Ernst Haeckel. The disquiet of her portraits, particularly the Hostage and Jawbone series, evoke the unflinching pathos of Otto Dix. Her continued reference to Renaissance themes and images combine the allegory of Bosch and Bruegel with the flatness usually found in Mexican primitivism. And yet, none of these influences begin to encapsulate the strangeness of Speed’s work. Speed’s unique vision is most pronounced in collage, although this term is inadequate to fully describe her compositions, which combine etching, gouache, mixed media, ink, and found paper. The animating spirit of her work lies in the spirit of collage — even her paintings seem to stem from some incongruous “other” place, a hidden layer hovering imperceptibly in the background, immediately jarring the viewer. “

-Leigh Baldwin (February 2013) “Force of Confusion” published by The Southwest School of Art, San Antonio


"Julie Speed is a quirky neo-Surrealist whose inspirations range from old master and Mughal painting to that 20th-century master of arcana, John Graham…... Lovable this imagery isn't, but it grows on you, largely because Ms. Speed's grasp of it is firm and her technical mastery impressive.”

-Grace Glueck (January 2006). " Art in Review” New York Times

“Julie Speed is an iconoclast in the truest sense of the word. Hers is the iconoclasm of a most sophisticated outsider artist. Incongruity is always present in Speed’s work.”

Barbara Rose (April 2005) “Julie Speed, Iconoclast” published by the Gerald Peters Gallery, NY

Solo exhibitions

Other publications

External links

Notes and References

  1. Gladstone. Valerie. Julie Speed: Gerald Peters. ARTnews. April 2010. 109. 5. 114–115.
  2. Molarsky. Mona. Julie Speed. ARTnews. February 2012. 111. 2. 110.
  3. Book: Speed, Julie. Julie Speed Paintings, Constructions, and Works on Paper. 2004. University of Texas Press. 978-0-292-70272-1.
  4. [Texas Monthly Talks#Season two Texas Monthly Talks, Season Two. Interview with Evan Smith for KLRU-TV, Austin, Texas]
  5. Web site: Local artist lives her lifelong dream in Austin.. Austin Now. KLRU. 27 May 2014.
  6. Behind the Veil: Visions of Third Eyes, Dismembered Body Parts, Monkeys and More Appear to Julie Speed - and She Paints them. Southwest Art. January 2005. 34. 8. 86–89.
  7. Book: Speed, Julie. Speed: art 2003-2009. 2009. University of Texas Press. Austin, TX. 978-0-292-71994-1.

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