Eyes

Large blue and green eyes loomed frequently in scenes of protests, prisons, cityscapes, funerals, and landscapes. Young used eyes as symbols for authority, referring to them in his work as “the System,” “the Man,” “the Establishment,” and the “White House.”

The painting to the right shows a figure with broken shackles dangling from his legs sitting atop a large green eye. Tears are falling from the eye, perhaps in response to the eye’s diminished control. Another painting has lines of protesters confronting a cluster of eyes, which are preventing them from reaching freedom in the mountains below.

All works Untitled and ca. 1980-1999