Join The Collection to save, track, and explore works like this.

Ryan Travis Christian — Father and Son
Ryan Travis Christian

Father and Son

2018

Ryan Travis Christian's "Father and Son" (2018) presents an intimate scene rendered entirely in graphite on paper, a modest but deceptively charged format the Chicago-born artist has made distinctly his own. Measuring just 17.8 × 25.4 cm, the work belongs to Christian's celebrated body of small-scale drawings that mine the visual language of mid-century American cartoons, folk imagery, and underground comics, filtering nostalgia through a lens of psychological tension and darkly comic unease. The compressed dimensions are entirely intentional, demanding that the viewer lean in, an act that transforms casual looking into something more private and complicit. The father-and-son pairing as subject carries the full weight of Christian's thematic preoccupations. His figures inhabit a world of inherited behavior, coded masculinity, and generational loops that can nurture or wound in equal measure. Rather than sentimentalizing the bond between parent and child, Christian renders it with an ambiguity that resists easy resolution, drawing on a lineage that connects Charles Schulz to Raymond Pettibon, yet arriving at something unmistakably personal. The graphite medium itself, raw and erasable, feels appropriate for a subject built on impermanence and revision. Signed by the artist, this work is presented through Richard Heller Gallery, one of the longest-standing champions of Christian's practice. For collectors, it represents an accessible entry point into a body of work that has grown considerably in critical standing, while offering the concentrated, almost whispered intensity that defines Christian's most compelling output on paper.

Medium
Graphite on paper
Overall
Signed
Yes

Start the Discussion

Request access to join the discussion

Collectors with works by Ryan Travis Christian

About this work

Ryan Travis Christian, Father and Son, 2018

Ryan Travis Christian's "Father and Son" (2018) presents an intimate scene rendered entirely in graphite on paper, a modest but deceptively charged format the Chicago-born artist has made distinctly his own. Measuring just 17.8 × 25.4 cm, the work belongs to Christian's celebrated body of small-scale drawings that mine the visual language of mid-century American cartoons, folk imagery, and underground comics, filtering nostalgia through a lens of psychological tension and darkly comic unease. The compressed dimensions are entirely intentional, demanding that the viewer lean in, an act that transforms casual looking into something more private and complicit. The father-and-son pairing as subject carries the full weight of Christian's thematic preoccupations. His figures inhabit a world of inherited behavior, coded masculinity, and generational loops that can nurture or wound in equal measure. Rather than sentimentalizing the bond between parent and child, Christian renders it with an ambiguity that resists easy resolution, drawing on a lineage that connects Charles Schulz to Raymond Pettibon, yet arriving at something unmistakably personal. The graphite medium itself, raw and erasable, feels appropriate for a subject built on impermanence and revision. Signed by the artist, this work is presented through Richard Heller Gallery, one of the longest-standing champions of Christian's practice. For collectors, it represents an accessible entry point into a body of work that has grown considerably in critical standing, while offering the concentrated, almost whispered intensity that defines Christian's most compelling output on paper.

Medium
Graphite on paper
Dimensions
overall: 17.8 x 25.4 cm
Year
2018
Signed
Hand-signed by the artist
Seen at
Richard Heller Gallery

More works by Ryan Travis Christian

Collected by

Gavin Kennedy