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Lytle’s paintings and drawings have been included in many solo and group exhibitions including at the Whitney Museum of American Art, Yale University Art Gallery, Harvard University and elsewhere, and have been featured at American Embassies around the world and at the World’s Fair in Seattle. He has received many prestigious awards including the Saint-Gaudens Medal and the Citation for Professional Achievement from Cooper Union. His work is to be found in many public and private collections including the Yale University Art Gallery, the Albrecht-Kemper Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the Williams College Museum of Art.

Mastery of color is a hallmark of Lytle’s work, which ranges from realist to abstraction, and which has always found its inspiration in the organic world. His dreamlike images move across spaces suggestive of landscapes, often in joyful biomorphic abstraction. Some focus on plants and natural shapes that are magnified beyond recognition, while others include elements chosen by the artist for their sensuous colors and patterning. 

Richard Lytle’s connection to ¹ú²úÉ«ÇéƬ University dates back to a commission he received for drawings for the exterior bas-relief sculptures for the Barone Campus Center in 1965.  The sculptures are now visible inside and on the exterior of the newly completed Tully Dining Commons building.  Organized as part of the celebration of ¹ú²úÉ«ÇéƬ University’s 75^th anniversary, this retrospective is a celebration of that long relationship.  It includes Lytle’s original drawings for the bas-reliefs – a recent gift to the museum from the artist – early charcoal drawings from the 1960s Nude Figures Series, a selection of Pod Series drawings from the 1970s, as well as watercolors and large oil paintings spanning the breadth of Lytle’s career. 

Generous support for the exhibition is provided by the Robert and Mercedes Eichholz Foundation.