Updated: April 16, 2026

A matte painting of Devil's Tower hand painted by matte artist Matthew Yuricich for Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind. In the climactic finale, Roy Neary ( Richard Dreyfuss ) and Jillian Guiler ( Melinda Dillon ) scaled Devil's Tower to reach the alien Mothership responsible for kidnapping Jillian's son Barry ( Cary Guffey ).

Initially, director Spielberg did not see the need for a matte painter. However, Richard Yuricich secretly brought his brother Matt onto the payroll, knowing that matte paintings would help resolve many of the technical problems that would inevitably arise. As Richard predicted, many complicated effects shots were achieved thanks to Matt's matte paintings. Steven and Matt came to hold each other in great mutual respect and became longtime friends.

The film was nominated for eight Academy Awards, including one for Yuricich, his brother Richard, Roy Arbogast, Douglas Trumbull, and Gregory Jein for Best Visual Effects. In 2007, it was selected by the U.S. Library of Congress for permanent preservation in the National Film Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" to national culture.

This painting is hand painted in acrylics on Masonite with a black wash for live action photography compositing. The top corner is hand marked "RI-1A, 4, B, R77" to reference the shots it was used for and applied with a strip of tape just beneath. The bottom corner is hand marked "RO, 12, 21, 23, 27" and painted over. The painting exhibits some paint flaking and wear to its corners and edges, exposing the Masonite in places. Dimensions: 80.5" x 38.25" x 1" ( 204 cm x 97 cm x 2.5 cm ).

Value: $6,000.