Biography
Rackstraw Downes, born in 1939 in England, received his B.A. from University of Cambridge (1961) and his B.F.A. (1963), M.F.A. from Yale University (1964). He’s a recipient of the Guggenheim (1998) and MacArthur (2009) Fellowships and was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters (1999). A retrospective, Rackstraw Downes: Onsite Paintings, 1972-2008, organized by the Parrish Art Museum in 2010 traveled to the Portland Museum of Art, ME and the Weatherspoon Museum in Greensboro, NC.
His work is in the collections of several museums including The Art Institute of Chicago, MoMA, The MET, Whitney Museum, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Philadelphia Museum of Art and National Gallery of Art.
His essays have appeared in The New York Times Book Review, Art in America, ARTnews and Art Journal. In 2014, Edgewise Press published a collection of his writings in Rackstraw Downes: Nature and Art Are Physical: Writings on Art, 1967-2008. He lives and works in New York City.
1939
Born in Kent, England
1961
BA in English Literature, Cambridge University, England
1961–62
English-Speaking Union Traveling Fellowship
1963–64
BFA and MFA in Painting, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut
1964–65
Post-Graduate Fellowship, University of Pennsylvania
1967–79
Teaches painting at the University of Pennsylvania
1969
Marjorie Heilman Visiting Artist, Swarthmore College, Pennsylvania
1971
Yaddo Residence Fellowship
1974
Ingram Merrill Fellowship
1978
CAPS
1980
National Endowment for the Arts Grant
1989
Academy-Institute Award, American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters
1998
John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship
1999
Inducted into the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters
2009
Delivered Ninth Annual Raymond Lecture for the Archives of American Art
2009
The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellowship
WORKS
Videos
EXHIBITIONS
2022
Rackstraw Downes: Drawings, Betty Cuningham Gallery, New York, NY, Jan 27 – Mar 12
2020
Rackstraw Downes: A Wider View, List Gallery, Swarthmore College, PA, Mar 5 – Apr 5
2018
Rackstraw Downes, Betty Cuningham Gallery, New York, NY, Sept 5 – Oct 14
2014
Rackstraw Downes, Betty Cuningham Gallery, New York, NY, Apr 3 – May 3
2012
Rackstraw Downes, Betty Cuningham Gallery, New York, NY, Oct 11 – Nov 24
2010–11
Rackstraw Downes: Onsite Paintings, 1974–2009, Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, NY; traveled to Portland Museum of Art, ME; Weatherspoon Art Museum, NC
2010
Rackstraw Downes: Under the Westside Highway, Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT
2010
Rackstraw Downes: A Selection of Drawings 1980–2010, Betty Cuningham Gallery, NY
2008
Building the Collection: Rackstraw Downes, Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock, AR
2008
Rackstraw Downes, Betty Cuningham Gallery, New York, NY
2007
Rackstraw Downes, Texas Gallery, Houston, TX
2005
Rackstraw Downes: Paintings and Studies, Dunn and Brown Contemporary, Dallas, TX
2004
Rackstraw Downes: New Paintings, Betty Cuningham Gallery, New York, NY
2004
Drawing as Part of the Process, New York Studio School, NY
2003
Water-Flow Monitoring Installations, Chinati Foundation, Marfa, TX
2000
Robert Miller Gallery, New York, NY
1999
The Chinati Paintings, Chinati Foundation, Marfa, TX
1998
Working Drawings, Marlborough Gallery, New York, NY
1997
Marlborough Gallery, New York, NY (exh. cat.)
1994
Amherst College, Amherst, MA
1992
Weatherspoon Art Gallery, Greensboro, NC
1991
Hirschl & Adler Modern, New York, NY
1988
Drawings, Texas Gallery, Houston, TX
1987
Hirschl & Adler Modern, New York, NY
1984
Hirschl & Adler Modern, New York, NY
1980
Kornblee Gallery, New York, NY
1980
Tatischeff & Co., New York, NY
1978
Kornblee Gallery, New York, NY
1978
Swain School of Design, New Bedford, MA
1975
Kornblee Gallery, New York, NY
1974
Kornblee Gallery, New York, NY
1972
Kornblee Gallery, New York, NY
1969
Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA
1969
Marlin McLeaf Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
2021
The Beatitudes of Malibu, David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, May 15 – Jul 2
2020
Can You Hear My Silent Scream?, Betty Cuningham Gallery, New York, NY, Sep 11 – Oct 20
2019–20
The Slab City Scene, Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, ME, Apr 13, 2019 – Feb 9, 2020
2019–20
The Seasons, Nassau County Museum of Art, Roslyn Harbor, NY, Nov 16, 2019 – Mar 1, 2020
2019
Summer!, Betty Cuningham Gallery, New York, NY, Jun 13 – Aug 2
2019
Downtown Painting, Peter Freeman, Inc., curated by Alex Katz, New York, NY, Jun 5 – Jul 26
2019
America Will Be! Surveying the Contemporary Landscape, Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX, Apr 6 – Oct 6
2017
Space as Narrative, Concord Center for the Visual Arts, Concord, MA, Oct 19 – Nov 26
2017
American Genre: Contemporary Painting, ICA at Maine College of Art, Portland, ME, Jul 20 – Sep 15
2017
Becoming: 25 Hotchkiss Artists, Tremaine Art Gallery, Hotchkiss School, Lakeville, CT, May 6 – Jun 18
2017
Painted Landscapes, Heritage Museum & Gardens, Sandwich, MA, Apr 15 – Oct 9
2017
The State of New York Painting, Kingsborough Art Museum, Brooklyn, NY, Mar 4 – Apr 5
2016
Landscape, Marlborough Chelsea, New York, NY, Jun 23 – Aug 5
2016
Hey You! ~ Who Me?, Yale School of Art, curated by Robert Storr, New Haven, CT, Apr 4 – Jun 5
2016
Differing Views, George Adams Gallery, New York, NY, Mar 1 – Apr 30
2016
A Visit with Old Friends, Lannan Foundation Gallery, Santa Fe, NM, Jan 30 – Mar 6
2015–16
Social Ecologies, Brooklyn Rail Curatorial Projects, Dec 10, 2015 – Feb 21, 2016
2015
Intimacy in Discourse, Mana Contemporary, Jersey City, NJ, Oct 18 – Dec 22
2012
From Life, Steven Harvey Projects, New York, NY, Nov 14 – Dec 23
2012
Paved Paradise, DC Moore Gallery, New York, NY, Sep 6 – 29
2011
Thaw, Betty Cuningham Gallery, New York, NY, Feb 26 – Apr 2
2008
Mythic Landscapes of America, Heckscher Museum of Art, Huntington, NY
2008
Sparks! The William T. Kemper Collecting Initiative, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO
2008
Urban Landscapes, Elisabeth Harris Gallery, New York, NY
2008
Painting Structures, List Gallery, Swarthmore College; The Painting Center, New York, NY
2008
The Urban Landscape, Susan Maasch Fine Arts, Portland, ME
2007
Sheldon Survey, Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE
2007
Real Time – Focus, Bernarducci Meisel Gallery, New York, NY
2007
The Constructed Landscape, Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, ME
2006
Got Cow? Cattle in American Art, Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, NY
2006
Five Landscape Paintings, University of Maine Museum of Art, Bangor, ME
2005
Land, Dunn and Brown Contemporary, Dallas, TX
2005
A Lucien Day Retrospective, Helen Day Art Center, Stowe, VT
2003
Celebrating Central Park: 1853–2003, Hirschl & Adler Galleries, New York, NY
2003
Skowhegan 2002–2003 Faculty Exhibition, ICA, Maine College of Art, Portland, ME
2003
Facing Reality: The Seavest Collection of Contemporary Realism, Neuberger Museum, SUNY Purchase, NY
2002
poly.auto.graph.y, Center Gallery, Fordham University, New York, NY
2002
Looking at America, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT
2001
ReAppearance: Realism in Contemporary Art, Simmons Visual Arts Gallery, Brenau University, Gainesville, GA
2001
Fresh Kills: Artists Respond to the Closure of the Staten Island Landfill, Snug Harbor Cultural Center, Staten Island, NY
2000
Inside/Out: The Space of Landscape & Architecture, Carpenter Center, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
2000
Making Choices: Modern Art Despite Modernism, Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, NY
2000
Crossing State Lines: Texas Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX
2000
New York Perspectives II, MB Modern, New York, NY
2000
Landscape 2000: The New Topography, University of Wyoming Art Museum, Laramie, WY
2000
In the Spirit of Landscape V, Nielsen Gallery, Boston, MA
1999
Green Woods and Crystal Waters, Philbrook Museum, Tulsa, OK
1999
Urban Mythologies: The Bronx Represented Since the 1960s, Bronx Museum, New York, NY
1999
Darkness and Light, Museum of Western Virginia, Roanoke, VA
1999
Contemporary American Realist Drawings, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
1998
Summer, Lennon, Weinberg, Inc., New York, NY
1998
Beyond the Mountains: The Contemporary American Landscape, Asheville Art Museum, Asheville, NC
1998
Tendences Actuelles de la Peinture à Houston, Musée de l’Echevinage, Saintes, France
1998
Landscapes, Meyerson & Nowinski, Seattle, WA
1998
Malcolm Morley, Ellen Phelan, Rackstraw Downes, Suzanne Hilberry Gallery, Detroit, MI
1997–98
Best of the Season: Selected Works from 1996–97 Gallery Exhibitions, Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, CT
1997
Landscape, Seen & Unseen, Pratt Manhattan Gallery, New York, NY; Schafler Gallery, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY
1997
CityScapes, Marlborough Gallery, New York, NY
1997
Landscape: The Pastoral to the Urban, Center for Curatorial Studies Museum, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY
1997
Art 1997 Chicago, Navy Pier, Chicago, IL
1997
Finders, Keepers, Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, TX
1996
Realism After 7 a.m., Hopper House, Nyack, NY
1996
Reinterpreting Landscape, Maier Museum of Art, Randolph-Macon Woman’s College, Lynchburg, VA
1996
Rediscovering the Landscape of the Americas, Gerald Peters Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
1995
Texas Myths and Realities, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX
1995
Urban Landscape, Wright State University Galleries, Dayton, OH
1995
The City: New York Visions 1900–1995, ACA Galleries, New York, NY
1995
The Urban Landscape, Wunderlich & Co., New York, NY; The Murray Collection, Scranton, PA
1995
Painting, the Intimate View, The Painting Center, New York, NY
1994
10 + 10, New York Studio School, New York, NY
1994
The Long View, Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, NY
1994
New York Realism Past and Present, Tampa Museum, Tampa, FL; traveling in Japan
1992
American Realism and Figurative Art: 1955–1990, Miyagi Museum of Art, Japan
1992
Island Inspired, Galveston Arts Center, Galveston, TX
1992
The Map is Not the Territory, Rosenwald-Wolf Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
1992
The Artist’s Eye, Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, ME
1992
City Views, Staller Center, SUNY Stony Brook, NY
1991
Drawings By, Proctor Art Center, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY
1991
Alienation in the Industrial Landscape, First Street Gallery, New York, NY
1991
Fairfield Porter and Rackstraw Downes: The Act of Seeing, Johnson Gallery, Middlebury College, VT
1991
The Painted Landscape: Seen, Translated, Imagined…, Genovese Gallery, Boston, MA
1991
Motion as Metaphor, Virginia Beach Center for the Arts, VA
1991
The Contemporary American Landscape, Philharmonic Center for the Arts, Naples, FL
1990
Wolf Kahn / Rackstraw Downes / Paul Resika, Kornbluth Gallery, Fairlawn, NJ
1990
Mixed-Use District, The Institute of Art & Urban Resources, New York, NY
1989–90
The Landscape Observed, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD
1989–90
Paintings and Sculpture by the Candidates for Art Awards, American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, New York, NY
1989–90
City By Day / City By Night, Gallery Henoch, New York, NY
1989–90
American Art Today: Contemporary Landscape, Florida International University, Miami, FL
1989
Direct Response: Contemporary Landscape Painting, Memorial Art Gallery, Rochester, NY
1988–89
The World is Round: Contemporary Panoramas, Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, NY
1988
Selections from The Ellen and Jerome Westheimer Collection, Oklahoma Art Center, OKC, OK
1988
Realism Today: American Drawings from the Rita Rich Collection, National Academy of Design (traveling)
1988
20th Century American Realism from the Blum Collection, Aetna Institute Gallery, Hartford, CT
1987
Urban Visions: The Contemporary Artist and New York, Adelphi University, Garden City, NY
1987
Contemporary American Landscapes: Reflections of Social Change, Summit Art Center, NJ
1987
Animal Life, One Penn Plaza, New York, NY
1987
Drawing and Drawings, Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, NY
1987
Landscape, Seascape, Cityscape, Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans, LA
1986
American Realism: Twentieth-Century Drawings and Watercolors, SFMOMA (traveling)
1985
Views: Interior and Exterior, Koplin Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1985
The Realist Landscape, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ
1983
New Narrative Painting, Metropolitan Museum of Art (Tamayo Museum), Mexico City
1981
Biennial Exhibition, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
1976
America 1976: Bicentennial Exhibition, U.S. Department of Interior, Washington, D.C.
1972
Painterly Realism, Art Institute of Chicago, IL
1968
American Landscape, Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA
Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, MA
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, ME
Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, NY
Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, PA
Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, OH
Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, ME
Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX
de Young Museum, San Francisco, CA
Farnsworth Museum of Art, Rockland, ME
Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, MA
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC
Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH
Menil Collection, Houston, TX
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX
Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, NY
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT
Chase Manhattan Bank, N.A., New York, NY
Chemical Bank, New York, NY
AXA Insurance Company, New York, NY
Exxon Corporation, New York, NY
Hess Corporation, New York, NY
Simpson, Thatcher & Bartlett, New York, NY
United Missouri Bancshares, New York, NY
Contact
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