Created prior to the election in November 2016, the 6 ft painting is part of a 32ft 6 panel, painting hung together as a homage to Picasso’s 1939 Guernica. Shown at Karl Hutter Fine Art in Los Angeles April 2016, “American History after 1980…” is panel #5 of 6 paintings created in March 2016 during one of the most difficult political periods in US History.  In 2013 Donald Trump purchased a 2006 Quigley portrait in a an exhibition supporting Guild Hall and Wounded Warrior/Soldier Ride. The 32 ft painting is a reaction to and refection on the most controversial story surrounding his 35 yr painting career, during one of the most divided and heated elections the country has ever known.

Quigley uses words, iconic symbols and abstract forms  to create a story surrounding the Reagan portrait  like a poster of propaganda or advertisement with a deeper message. There is a strong consistent career long never ending investigation using words on his canvases like a book.  In this and many of his works is an integration of cultures through the various texts and type face, attempting to merge the two independent forms  without being trite. Adding his classic typical touch of nostaglia and history, there is a personal, intimate 1986 drawing of Ronald Reagan Quigley did in college collaged below the larger portrait acting as both  a reflection and lineage to his own karmic coincidence, motivations and reasoning. 

The green cartoonish head is a symbol of Commerce. Reagan was  the 40th President of the United States from 1981 to 1989, while in office the American Flag flew proudly as one of the greatest countries in the world.

On the evening of May 1, 1976,  Governor Ronald Reagan, campaigning to become the 40th US President warbled the lyrics to “The Eyes of Texas Are Upon You” into a telephone from a hotel in Indiana. Reagan set into motion a political revolution in the Lone Star State that broadened the Texas Republican Party from a country club-dominated organization into a populist movement led by social conservatives. And with a boost from George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush, he turned a swing state that had voted for Democrats in four of the previous five presidential elections into a deep red state that has chosen Republicans for president eight straight times and does not have a single Democratic statewide elected official. While President,  the United State's success internationally and domestically inflated the global economy while changing America's style of life and standards of living dramatically.  The cubistic layering, map like terrain and word 'Twas' and continuous abstract lines of Blue and Red unite the entirety of the painting, and put in perspective a lineage of free flowing pride like an aerial view of a map. The life guard stand with the American flag directly symbolizes the ever growing need to protect our borders while still being a country of freedom open to opportunity and those in need.