Rackstraw Downes (American/British, b. 1939)
Washington County, Drizzle, 1972
Oil on canvas 48 x 76 in.
Rackstraw Downes does not identify strictly as a landscape painter. Rather, he sees himself as an artist capturing the essence of his surroundings and environment. His works are often presented in a panoramic format, revealing a thoughtful balance between minute details and the expanse of their surroundings.
According to the artist, “My paintings are executed from start to finish onsite in the landscape and take months. When you work outdoors, you surrender a lot of control over your subject and that is what I like about it, the interactive, experiential character of it. It is the opposite of starting with a clear-cut idea and projecting that into the work. You learn about the site as you proceed.”
Washington County, Drizzle was first exhibited at Kornblee Gallery, on East 79th Street, shortly after it was made. Hilton Kramer reviewed the exhibition for the NY Times writing: “With this exhibition, Mr. Downes emerges as one of the most accomplished and distinctive landscape painters of the younger generation. In his larger paintings—roughly, six feet wide—he favors open, panoramic views of a landscape (in this instance, Washington County in upstate New York) with sparsely settled farmland in the foreground, low mountains in the distance, and a cloudspotted sky overhead. These views are depicted with a remarkable specificity of detail and an almost topographical rendering of the terrain, yet what is so impressive about the painting is the way Mr. Downes has made of each visual element of the scene a compelling pictorial form. He has also judged very shrewdly the way the large solid forms of nature are “softened” to the eye by changes of light and weather. Thus, paintings such as “Washington County, Drizzle” are completely persuasive as realistic accounts of their subjects, and are at the same time pictorial structures of a notable strength and energy.” The firm acquired this painting from Kornblee Gallery at the time of that exhibition.
A smaller (20 x 30 in.) version of this painting is in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Other Rackstraw Downes paintings may be found in the permanent collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Modern Art, the National Gallery of Art, and many other major museums.
Additional information about the artist can be found here:
https://art21.org/artist/rackstraw-downes/
https://www.thedailybeast.com/rackstraw-downess-art-and-essays-are-two-sides-of-the-same-genius