Rackstraw Downes – Cleveland State Art

Rackstraw Downes is a British oil painter who was born in Kent, England in the year 1939. He gained his BA from Cambridge University in 1961 and his BFA and MFA shortly after from Yale University in 1964. He’s known as a realist painter but doesn’t identify as one, because he believes that the way we view things is culturally taught to us. He says that, “There is no solution to the representation of the world,” meaning that each of us has the power to see our surroundings in a way no one else can, and no one way is correct.

Snug Harbor, Metal Duct Work in G Attic
part 2 of a 4-part painting
2001

Although many of his paintings are also landscapes, he also doesn’t see himself as a landscape artist. Downes says that, “I don’t think of myself as being a landscape painter. I like to say that I paint my environment, my surroundings.”

Water-Flow Monitoring Installations on the Rio Grande Near Presidio, TX
part 2 of a 5-part painting
2002–03

The surroundings he chooses to paint are very diverse areas ranging from the city streets of New York to the Maine countryside. When he paints, he never resorts to using photography. He sets up his easel in his chosen location and simply paints what he sees.

His art focuses on extreme detail and clarity of form. I was drawn to this artist because I love how clean and intricate his work is. I admire how he expresses his view of the world and how he puts a lot of thought and time into each piece he creates. “I go over that same little shadow over and over again until I get that shape. It has a character.”

Henry Hudson Bridge Substructure, P.M.
2006

Downes also usually works in series, examining one scene from multiple angles over time. By doing this he expresses the changes in light and shadow as well as changes in his point of view. Downes truly appreciates his surroundings in an untraditional way by painting in a traditional fashion. Many people distort what they see when they create art and change it into something new, but Downes takes the world exactly as it is and presents it in a very honest and sincere way. It’s almost as if he becomes a translator for his surroundings, communicating the shapes that he sees into art that we can see too.

He enjoys painting vast and empty spaces,things that people wouldn’t typically be interested in depicting in art. “It looks empty, but I see fullness there,” He explains, “and I’d like you to see that fullness too in my painting.”

4 Spots along a Razor-Wire Fence, August–November (ASPOTSPRIE)
part 3 of a 4-part painting
1999

I also like how he presents perspective. His paintings appear to bend along the shape of his viewpoint, following the curve of the eye as he perceives the area around him. He doesn’t follow the set rules for applying perspective in a painting but what he does in his art just feels right. It leaves the viewer with the impression that the space is warping around them. He says that, “Perspective is an attempt to standardize the metaphor of the depiction of space.”

The Pulaski Skyway Crossing the Hackensack River
2007

His works have been featured in famous museums such as the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC as well as many others.

Rackstraw Downes is an artist from England who does realistic landscape paintings. He does not consider himself a landscape artist but one who just notices his surroundings. He pays attention to extreme details which creates a highly realistic look to his paintings. While living in England, Rackstraw Downes became familiar with surroundings that had been touched by people so when he moved to the United States in 1980, the massive amounts of untouched land was completely foreign to him. He enjoys including industrial elements in his work because we often want to look past those details. They are essentially what gives us power and our everyday modern amenities and he tries to bring appreciation to these details in his work. He paints plein air, tries not to use any photography, and paints how the natural eye would perceive it. He mainly works with oil paints and canvas. Rackstraw Downes has been extremely successful in his education and his career. He has a masters degree from Yale University and has his work in several prestigious art museums permanent collections. He was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship and has works in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Art Institute of Chicago, Houston and the National Gallery of Art and plenty others.

I picked Rackstraw Downes for my artist presentation mainly because I appreciate the attention he gives to the smallest of details in his paintings. His paintings almost look like photographs and in my opinion that is very difficult for someone to achieve. I like that his paintings aren’t typical landscapes and includes the industrial elements we often look over. Sometimes these industrial elements can ruin certain aspects of art but Rackstraw Downes shows how these can be incorporated into it.

Farm Buildings Near the Rio Grande: West End of the Barn

This is the first painting that stood out to me the most because at first I thought it was a photograph that he might have been referencing from, but then I looked closer and it was actually one of his paintings.

Snug Harbor, Metal Duct Work in G Attic

I also really liked this painting because it is not something someone would typically paint. The way it is really industrial appeals to me.

The Mouth of the Passagassawakeag at Belfast, ME, Seen from the Frozen Foods Plant

This is probably my favorite painting that I have seen from Rackstraw Downes because it reminds me of something you might see in a rural small town. It is painted onto two canvas and this is another one where I thought it was a photograph.

Oronzio Maldarelli Cottage, Skowhegan

I thought this painting was nice because it was not one of his typical outside paintings and I like that I looks like it has just rained at a cabin somewhere in the middle of nowhere.