Gary Erbe

(born 1944)

Those Amazin' Mets 64 x 45in (162.6 x 114.3cm)

Footnotes

Exhibited
Albuquerque, New Mexico, Albuquerque Museum and elsewhere, Gary T. Erbe: 40 Year Retrospective, December 21, 2008-February 15, 2009, p. 15, illustrated.
Canton, Ohio, Canton Museum of Art, The Mystery & Magic: The Trompe L'oeil Vision of Gary T. Erbe, April 24-July 19, 2015, p. 17.
Huntington, New York, The Heckscher Museum of Art, Master of Illustion: The Magical Art of Gary Erbe, May 21-August 28, 2016, p. IV, illustrated.
Youngstown, Ohio, The Butler Institute of American Art and elsewhere, Gary Erbe: 50 Year Retrospective, May 14-August 6, 2017.

Literature
The Art Newspaper, March 2007, vol. 16, p. 30, illustrated.
D. Steinberg, "Artist's specialty is making viewers' eyes play tricks on them," Albuquerque Journal, December 21, 2008, p. F1, illustrated.
T. Higgins, "Baum School exhibit: You won't believe your eyes," The Morning Call, September 27, 2015, p. 6 GO, illustrated (detail).
T. Folk, C. Lowrey, C.I. Oaklander, C. Ratcliff, M.W. Schantz, L.A. Zona, Footprints: The Art and Life of Gary Erbe, Youngstown, Ohio, 2016, pp. 176, 181, illustrated.
E. Blair, "Master of Illusion: Museum presents tricks and treats for the eye," TBR News Media, May 19, 2016, n.p., illustrated.
J.L. Levere, "Gary Erbe Tricks the Eye With a Dose of Pop Culture", The New York Times, July 24, 2016, Section LI, p. 8, illustrated.

The present work retains its original frame designed by the artist and made by Julius Lowy Frame and Restoring Company in New York. The present work is also accompanied by an original copy of of the book Footprints: The Art and Life of Gary Erbe published by The Butler Institute of American Art in which this work is illustrated.

In 1969, the New York Mets accomplished the seemingly impossible and won the World Series over the Baltimore Orioles in one of the greatest championship upsets of all-time. This accomplishment earned The Mets a nickname as the "Miracle Mets." Gary Erbe's Those Amazin' Mets honors the team's pivotal year, when this young Major League Baseball franchise unexpectedly achieved every team's ultimate goal. Painted on a monumental scale, Erbe's composition includes Mets score cards, ball caps, banners, a Wheaties box featuring star player Tom Seaver (b. 1944), a can of baseball pine tar, a box of baseball movies, magazine covers, a copy of the Daily News with the headline "WE WIN IT!" and more memorabilia surrounding a Mets uniform. Many of the key players that Erbe depicts are still considered to be the best in the team's history. Erbe's title for the present work references another one of the team's nicknames, "Amazin' Mets," coined by the team's manager Casey Stengel (1890-1975). In addition to the artist's appreciation for this momentous time in the history of the Mets, the present work is also an exceptional example of Erbe's mastery of trompe l'oeil still life painting. Each of the objects depicted, such as the autographed baseball and glove, appear enticing and illusively realistic due to Erbe's incredibly detailed and refined painting technique.