Rackstraw Downes
Encyclopedia
Rackstraw Downes is a British
-born realist painter and author
. His oil painting
s are notable for their meticulous detail accumulated during months of plein-air sessions, depictions of industry and the environment, and elongated compositions with complex perspective.
, Kent, England, he moved to the United States
and studied painting as an exchange student at the Hotchkiss School
in Lakeville, Connecticut
from 1957-58. He then returned to England and attended Cambridge University, where he received a B.A.
in English literature. Back in the United States, he studied at the Yale School of Art
with Neil Welliver
, Al Held
and Alex Katz
, and received an M.F.A. in painting in 1964.
in 1964, where he began drawing the landscape, thus changing direction from the non-representational manner of his student work. In 1965 Downes moved to New York City
. Over the next several years he taught at the University of Pennsylvania
, Parsons School of Design, and later, at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture.
Though he is primarily based in New York City, where he has painted numerous cityscapes, Downes has traveled widely, creating a significant number of landscape paintings on site in Maine and Texas, of subjects including the harbor of Portland, Maine
and the Donald Judd
structures in Marfa, Texas
. He has also painted interiors of a panoramic scale similar to his landscapes. Downes' paintings are characterized by their vastness of scope as much as their attention to detail: they are composed of a fused sequence of visual observations, their horizontal lines 'bending' so as to acknowledge the Earth's curvature and the limitations of two-point perspective
when applied to wide-angle views.
He has written for The New York Times
, Art in America
, Art News, The New Criterion, and other publications. He also edited Art In Its Own Terms: Selected Criticism, 1935-1975, a collection of Fairfield Porter
's writing. Downes' writing has been published in two small paperbacks: In Relation to the Whole, which features three essays; Under The Gowanus and Razor-Wire Journal, a documentation of his painting process; and in his own monograph, Rackstraw Downes.
Downes received a Guggenheim Fellowship
in 1998. In 1999 he was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and in 2009 he was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship 'genius award'.
New York Times art critic Ken Johnson
wrote that Downes "paints beautiful pictures of ugly places."
and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
. He is represented by the Betty Cunningham Gallery in New York.
in Southampton, New York
.
2010 Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, Connecticut
.
2011 Weatherspoon Art Museum http://weatherspoon.uncg.edu, Greensboro, North Carolina
.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
-born realist painter and author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
. His oil painting
Oil painting
Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments that are bound with a medium of drying oil—especially in early modern Europe, linseed oil. Often an oil such as linseed was boiled with a resin such as pine resin or even frankincense; these were called 'varnishes' and were prized for their body...
s are notable for their meticulous detail accumulated during months of plein-air sessions, depictions of industry and the environment, and elongated compositions with complex perspective.
Education
Born Rodney Harry Rackstraw Downes in PemburyPembury
Pembury is a large village in Kent, in the south east of England, with a population of around 6,000. It lies just to the north-east of Tunbridge Wells.The village centre, including the village green and High Street area is a conservation area.-History:...
, Kent, England, he moved to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and studied painting as an exchange student at the Hotchkiss School
Hotchkiss School
The Hotchkiss School is an independent, coeducational American college preparatory boarding school located in Lakeville, Connecticut. Founded in 1891, the school enrolls students in grades 9 through 12 and a small number of postgraduates...
in Lakeville, Connecticut
Lakeville, Connecticut
Lakeville is a village and census-designated place in the town of Salisbury in Litchfield County, Connecticut, on Lake Wononskopomuc. The village includes Lakeville Historic District, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The district represents about of the village center...
from 1957-58. He then returned to England and attended Cambridge University, where he received a B.A.
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
in English literature. Back in the United States, he studied at the Yale School of Art
Yale School of Art
The Yale School of Art is one of twelve constituent schools of Yale University. It is a professional art school, granting only Masters of Fine Arts degrees to those completing studies in graphic design, painting/printmaking, photography, or sculpture....
with Neil Welliver
Neil Welliver
Neil Welliver was an American-born modern artist, best known for his large-scale landscape paintings inspired by the deep woods near his home in Maine....
, Al Held
Al Held
Al Held was an American Abstract expressionist painter. He was particularly well known for his large scale Hard-edge paintings.-Background and education:...
and Alex Katz
Alex Katz
Alex Katz is an American figurative artist associated with the Pop art movement. In particular, he is known for his paintings, sculptures, and prints and is represented by numerous galleries internationally.-Life and work:...
, and received an M.F.A. in painting in 1964.
Work
His friendship with Welliver led to the purchase of a farm in MaineMaine
Maine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...
in 1964, where he began drawing the landscape, thus changing direction from the non-representational manner of his student work. In 1965 Downes moved to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. Over the next several years he taught at the University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
, Parsons School of Design, and later, at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture.
Though he is primarily based in New York City, where he has painted numerous cityscapes, Downes has traveled widely, creating a significant number of landscape paintings on site in Maine and Texas, of subjects including the harbor of Portland, Maine
Portland, Maine
Portland is the largest city in Maine and is the county seat of Cumberland County. The 2010 city population was 66,194, growing 3 percent since the census of 2000...
and the Donald Judd
Donald Judd
Donald Clarence Judd was an American artist associated with minimalism . In his work, Judd sought autonomy and clarity for the constructed object and the space created by it, ultimately achieving a rigorously democratic presentation without compositional hierarchy...
structures in Marfa, Texas
Marfa, Texas
Marfa is a town in the high desert of far West Texas in the Southwestern United States. Located between the Davis Mountains and Big Bend National Park, it is also the county seat of Presidio County. The population was 1,981 at the 2010 census....
. He has also painted interiors of a panoramic scale similar to his landscapes. Downes' paintings are characterized by their vastness of scope as much as their attention to detail: they are composed of a fused sequence of visual observations, their horizontal lines 'bending' so as to acknowledge the Earth's curvature and the limitations of two-point perspective
Perspective (visual)
Perspective, in context of vision and visual perception, is the way in which objects appear to the eye based on their spatial attributes; or their dimensions and the position of the eye relative to the objects...
when applied to wide-angle views.
He has written for The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, Art in America
Art in America
Art in America is an illustrated monthly, international magazine concentrating on the contemporary art world, including profiles of artists and genres, updates about art movements, show reviews and event schedules. It is designed for collectors, artists, dealers, art professionals and other...
, Art News, The New Criterion, and other publications. He also edited Art In Its Own Terms: Selected Criticism, 1935-1975, a collection of Fairfield Porter
Fairfield Porter
Fairfield Porter was an American painter and art critic. He was the brother of photographer Eliot Porter and the brother-in-law of federal Reclamation Commissioner Michael W. Straus....
's writing. Downes' writing has been published in two small paperbacks: In Relation to the Whole, which features three essays; Under The Gowanus and Razor-Wire Journal, a documentation of his painting process; and in his own monograph, Rackstraw Downes.
Downes received a Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowship
Guggenheim Fellowships are American grants that have been awarded annually since 1925 by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts." Each year, the foundation makes...
in 1998. In 1999 he was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and in 2009 he was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship 'genius award'.
New York Times art critic Ken Johnson
Ken Johnson (art critic)
Ken Johnson is an American art critic who lives in New York. Johnson is a writer for the arts pages of The New York Times, where he covers gallery and museum exhibits....
wrote that Downes "paints beautiful pictures of ugly places."
Collections
Downes' work is held in public collections including the Museum of Modern ArtMuseum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...
and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden is an art museum beside the National Mall, in Washington, D.C., the United States. The museum was initially endowed during the 1960s with the permanent art collection of Joseph H. Hirshhorn. It was designed by architect Gordon Bunshaft and is part of the...
. He is represented by the Betty Cunningham Gallery in New York.
Exhibitions
2010 Parrish Art MuseumParrish Art Museum
The Parrish Art Museum is the oldest cultural institution on the East End of Long Island, uniquely situated within one of the most concentrated creative communities in the United States...
in Southampton, New York
Southampton (village), New York
Southampton is a village in Suffolk County, New York, USA. The village is named after the Earl of Southampton. The Village of Southampton is in the southeast part of the county in the Town of Southampton...
.
2010 Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, Connecticut
Ridgefield, Connecticut
Ridgefield is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. Situated in the foothills of the Berkshire Mountains, the 300-year-old community had a population of 24,638 at the 2010 census. The town center, which was formerly a borough, is defined by the U.S...
.
2011 Weatherspoon Art Museum http://weatherspoon.uncg.edu, Greensboro, North Carolina
Greensboro, North Carolina
Greensboro is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is the third-largest city by population in North Carolina and the largest city in Guilford County and the surrounding Piedmont Triad metropolitan region. According to the 2010 U.S...
.
Publications
- Schwartz, Sanford; Storr, Robert, and Downes, Rackstraw. Rackstraw Downes. Princeton University Press, April 2005
- Under the Gowanus and Razor-Wire Journal: The making of two paintings. 5.9.99 - 11.15.99. New York, Turning the Head Press, 2000
- In Relation to the Whole: Three Essays from Three Decades - 1973, 1981, 1996. New York, Edgewise Press, 2000
External links
- Museum of Modern Art
- The Betty Cuningham Gallery
- "Landscape's Grittier Aspects" Richard B. Woodward, The Wall Street JournalThe Wall Street JournalThe Wall Street Journal is an American English-language international daily newspaper. It is published in New York City by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, along with the Asian and European editions of the Journal....
, 14 July 2010 - Beautifully Bleak - interactive slideshow by The New York TimesThe New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
- http://weatherspoon.uncg.edu/exhibitions/show/?title=rackstraw-downes-onsite-paintings-1972-2008 - Information on Downes' current exhibition at the Weatherspoon Art Museum, Greensboro, North Carolina