Artist John O’Neil expected a painting “to be a world of its own, ordered, and perfect within itself.” Land with Cold Sun is just that, a world of its own. A white sun with triangular rays of light reigns over this world. Protected by a hallo of light, this unsophisticated, cold sun orders the chaotic composition. Without this one symbol, the work would be purely abstract. In painting, O’Neil found a medium that allowed him to make a personal statement or leave behind a “kind of calligraphic record.” According to O’Neil, this record is “often a clue to the artist’s personality.” If this is true, then O’Neil’s artistic personality, as exemplified by Land with Cold Sun, is characterized by freneticism and balance. It is neurotic, yet, by way of a small symbol, it is thinly tethered to reality and rational thought. Its color is vibrant and emotive. With dramatically disjointed and widely varying tonality, color consumes the pictorial space.

O’Neil was born in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1915. In 1936, he graduated from the University of Oklahoma with a BFA. In 1939, O’Neil received an MFA in painting from the same institution. During World War II, he served as a topographer in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in North Africa. He later served as a graphic artist at the Pentagon. O’Neil was discharged from military service in 1946. Following the war, he was appointed director of the Art Department at the University of Oklahoma. In 1965, O’Neil moved to Houston. He served as the Art Department Head at Rice University until 1970. Over the course of his career, O’Neil exhibited at the World’s Fair in New York, the Carnegie Institute, the Denver Art Museum, and the Art Institute of Chicago. His work is represented in the collections of the University of Michigan Museum of Art, the Joslyn Museum, the Philbrook Art Center, and the Seattle Art Museum.