Rackstraw Downes: Onsite Painting, 1972-2008

By Klaus Ottman

Rackstraw Downes: Onsite Paintings, 1972-2008 is an important overview of the work and methods of this British-born 'realist' panoramic painter (b. 1939) who was given the MacArthur Fellowship genius award in 2009. Though primarily based in New York City, Downes has travelled widely and has created a significant number of landscape paintings on site including the harbour of Portland, Maine, and the Donald Judd structures in Marfa, Texas.

Downes's panoramic paintings, which he developed by studying 17th-century Dutch panoramic landscape painting possess a unique balance between realism and abstraction, timelessness and history. Painted from observation, they are not "snapshots" of a scene recreated in the studio; rather, they are chronicles of the human experience-- records of social history as it evolves.

The book also features a wide-ranging interview between the artist and Terrie Sultan, director of Parrish Art Museum

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1904832733
• ISBN13: 9781904832737
• Release Date: May 2010
• Publisher: Giles
• Length: 112 Pages
• Weight: 2.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 11.0" x 9.5"