VAM galleries including this work:
Berea College | What’s in a Name? || VAM Home

In Transformation #117, the artist suggests a connection between the Biblical story of Adam and Eve and the modern state of humanity. The Garden of Eden appears lush and idyllic in the background of the painting. Eve offers Adam the forbidden apple of wisdom as the serpent hangs forebodingly overhead. The foreground of the painting depicts a modern scene, as indicated by the man’s tailored suit and newly shorn haircut. Instead of the fertile green of the garden, the man and the serpent-woman stand amid a heap of dirt and rocks.

About the Artist

C.C. (Carlos Cortez) Coyle was born on December 1, 1871 in Madison County, Kentucky, near Bear Wallow. In the 1890s, he attended the Berea Foundation School, although he never graduated. Very little is known about Coyle’s life between 1900 and 1942, other than that he traveled through Canada and the Pacific Northwest before settling in San Francisco. What is known has been gathered from the 47 paintings, 37 drawings, and personal notes and writings that he shipped to the Berea College Art Department in 1942. Coyle died at the age of 90 in Leesburg, Florida.

Coyle painted his often bizarre subject matter from memory, books, news reports, and nostalgia for the past. While his work demonstrates artistic competency and creative know-how, there is no evidence that he ever received formal training in art.

Classroom Ideas

Discussion: Do you think Transformation #117 is intended to make some sort of statement? If so, what kind of message do you think it conveys? How would you classify this work of art in terms of style and movement? If you didn’t know, when would you have guessed this work was painted?

Activities: Think about a story or event from the past and then consider how it might still be relevant today. Using Transformation #117 as an example, create a composition that in some way combines a scene from the past with a scene of the present.

The story of Adam and Eve, like many stories from the Bible, is often depicted in art. For another example, see The Temptation by Edgar Tolson in the University of Kentucky Museum gallery. Read information about Tolson and compare and contrast Tolson and The Temptation to Coyle and Transformation #117. What other examples of art based on Biblical stories can you find in the Kentucky Virtual Art Museum? Can you find examples of art based on stories from other religions?

Links

Visit Berea College’s C.C. Coyle Collection for more examples of his primitive oil paintings.
[www.berea.edu/art/collections/cccoyle/]