Crown Point Press

Biography - Rackstraw Downes

Born

1939 Kent, England. Currently lives in New York City.

Education

1961 Cambridge University, England, B.A
1964 Yale University, M.F.A
1964‑65 University of Pennsylvania, post‑graduate fellowship

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2007 “Rackstraw Downes” Texas Gallery, Houston, TX
2005 “Rackstraw Downes: Paintings and Studies,” Dunn and Brown Contemporary, Dallas, Texas
2004 “Rackstraw Downes: New Paintings,” Betty Cuningham Gallery, New York, New York
“Drawing as Part of the Process,” New York Studio School, New York, New York
2003 “Water-Flow Monitoring Installations on the Rio Grande near Presidio, TX,” The Chinati Foundation, Marfa, Texas
2000 Robert Miller Gallery, New York, New York
1999 “The Chinati Paintings”, The Chinati Foundation, Marfa, Texas
1998 Working Drawings, Marlborough Gallery, New York, New York
1997 Marlborough Gallery, NY
1994 Amherst College, Amherst, Massachusetts
1992 Hirschh & Adler Modern, NY
Weatherspoon Art Gallery, Greensboro, North Carolina
1991 Hirschl & Adler Modern, New York, New York
1988 Drawings, Texas Gallery, Houston, Texas
1987 Hirschl & Adler Modern, NY
1984 Hirschl & Adler Modern, NY
1980 Kornblee Gallery, NY
Tasticheff & Company, NY
1978 Swain School of Design, New Bedford, MA
Kornblee Gallery, New York, New York
1975 Kornblee Gallery, New York, New York
1974 Kornblee Gallery, New York, New York
1972 Kornblee Gallery, New York, New York
1969 Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA

Selected Group Exhibitions

2007 Sheldon Survey: An Invitational, Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska
Real Time – Focus: Redefining the Painted Landscape, Bernarducci Meisel Gallery, New York, New York
The Constructed Landscape, Rackstraw Downes, Linden Frederick, Yvonne Jacquette, John Moore, Dennis Pinette, Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, Maine
2006 Got Cow? Cattle in American Art, 1820-2000, The Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, New York
Five Landscape Paintings, University of Maine Museum of Art, Bangor, Maine
2005 Land, Dunn and Brown Contemporary, Dallas, Texas
A Lucien Day Retrospective, Helen Day Art Center, Stowe, Vermont
2003 Celebrating Central Park. 1853-2003, Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York, New York
Skowhegan 2002003 Faculty Exhibition ICA, Maine College of Art, Portland, Maine
Facing Reality The Seavest Collection of Contemporary Realism Neuberger Museum, SUNY, Purchase, New York
2002 poly.auto.gragh.y. Center Gallery, Fordam University at Lincoln Center, New York, New York
Looking at America Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut
2001 ReAppearance, Realism in Contemporary Art. Simmons Visual Arts Gallery, Brenan University, Gainesville, Georgia
Fresh Kills: Artists respond to the Closure of the Staten Island Landfill. Snug Harbor Cultural Center, Staten Island, New York
2000 Inside/Out The Space of Landscape & Architecture Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Making Choices Modern Art despite Modernism Museum of odern Art New York, New York, Curated by Robert Storr
Crossing State Lines: Texas Art From The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas
New York Perspectives II. MB Modern, New York, New York
Landscape 2000 The New Topography Late Twentieth Century American Landscape Painting The University of Wyoming Art Museum, Laramie, Wyoming
In the Spirit of Landscape V. Nielsen Gallery, Boston Massachusetts
Artists in Maine. Hay Gallery. Portland, Maine
Elogio de lo Visible, Galeria Marlborough, Madrid, Spain
1999 Green Woods and Crystal Waters, Philbrook Museum, Tulsa, Oklahoma
Darkness and Light, Museum of Western Virginia, Roanoke, West Virginia
Contemporary American Realist Drawings, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois
1998 Summer, Lennon, Weinberg, Inc., New York, New York
Beyond The Mountains: The Contemporary American Landscape, Asheville Art Museum, Asheville, North Carolina
Tendences Actuelles de la Peinture a Houston, Texas, oeuvres
Landscape, Seen & Unseen, Pratt Manhattan Gallery, New York. Traveling exhibition: Schafler Gallery, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York
CityScapes, Marlborough Gallery, New York, New York
Landscape: The Pastoral to the Urban, Center for Curatorial Studies Museum, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York
1993 “The Enviornmentalists”, Gallery North Setauket, NY
1991 “American Panorama”, Tibor de Nagy Gallery, New York
1989 “Contemporary Environment”, General Electric Co., NY
1988 “Multiple Realities”, Crown Point Press
1983 “Perspectives on Contemporary American Realism, Works on Paper”, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA
“A Heritage Renewed, Representational Drawing Today”, University Art Museum, Santa Barbara, CA
“Painted Light”, The Queens Museum, Queens, NY
“Carnegie International”, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, PA
1982 “An Appreciation of Realism”, Munson‑Williams‑Proctor Institute, Utica, NY
1981 “Contemporary American Realism”, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA
“Biennial Exhibition of 1981”, Whitney Museum of American Art, NY
“Amerikanische Malerai, 1930‑1980”, Munich, Germany
“The American Landscape, Recent Developments”, Whitney Museum of American Art, NY
“The Panoramic Image”, University of Southampton, Southampton, England
“Contemporary American Landscape”, Hirschl & Adler Galleries, NY
“The Americans‑The Landscape”,Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, TX
“20 Artists: Yale School of Art, 1950‑1970”, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT
“American Drawing in Black and White, 1970‑1980”, The Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY
“Real, Really Real, Super Real: Directions in Contemporary American Realism”, San Antonio Museum of Art, San Antonio, TX
1980 “The Figurative Image”, Hartford Art School, University of Hartford, Hartford, CT
1979 “America in the 70’s: Depicted by Artists from the Richard Brown Baker Collection”, Meadow Brook Art Gallery, Rochester, MI
“Artists Choice Museum Show: Figurative/Realist Art”, 6 galleries, NY
“The New Concern with Nature”, Staten Island Museum, Staten Island, NY
1978 “Landscape/Cityscape”, State University of New York at Potsdam, NY
“Things Seen”, Sheldon Memorial Library, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE
1976 “Eighteen Artists”, Los Angeles County Museum, Los Angeles, CA
“America 1976”, U.S Department of the Interior Bicentennial Exhibition
1973 “A Sense of Place, The Artists and the American Land”, Mid‑America Arts Alliance (Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska)
1972 “Painterly Realism”, Chicago Art Institute, Chicago,IL

Awards

The American Academy and Institute of Arts & Letters

Bibliography

February 1981 Frank, Elizabeth, ART IN AMERICA
January, 1981 Ffrench‑Frazier, Nina, ART INTERNATIONAL
November 11, 1981 Schjeldahl, Peter, VILLAGE VOICE
November 7, 1980 Kramer, Hilton, THE NEW YORK TIMES
November 5, 1980 Zimmer, William, THE SOHO NEWS
October, 1980 Martin, Jean, ARTS MAGAZINE
Jan/Feb 1978 Bourdon, David, ARCHITECTURAL DIGEST
February 1978 Bourdon, David, ARTS MAGAZINE
March 12, 1978 Kramer, Hilton, THE NEW YORK TIMES
March 13, 1978 Stevens, Mark, NEWSWEEK
Summer 1978 Schejeldahl, Peter, ARTFORUM
April 3, 1978 Ashberry, John, NEW YORK MAGAZINE
March 6, 1978 VILLAGE VOICE
April 4, 1978 KUNSTMARKT
Jan/Feb 1976 Nochlin, Linda, ART IN AMERICA
October 11, 1975 Russell, John, THE NEW YORK TIMES
October 16, 1975 Gruen, John, THE SOHO NEWS
January 27, 1974 Kramer, Hilton, THE NEW YORK TIMES
March, 1974 Frank, Elizabeth, ART NEWS
March 30, 1974 Evett, Kenneth, THE NEW REPUBLIC
January, 1973 ART INTERNATIONAL
October 21, 1972 Kramer, Hilton, THE NEW YORK TIMES

Public Collections

Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, PA
The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC
The Museum of Modern Art, NY
The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA
Weatherspoon Art Gallery, Greensboro, NC
The Whitney Museum of American Art, NY