When the clarity of an artwork is the solution to a room
When the clarity of an artwork is the solution to a room.
A Thomas Downing painting is not representative of anything other than itself and the status it bestows upon an environment – the space it occupies. As such, a Downing painting’s engagement with a room becomes essential to its interior design and architecture. Art is typically the last to arrive, the final choice, after wall color, rug, furniture, and window treatment, the ultimate decision.
Will Thomas Downing’s “Les Danseur and The Water Glass” be the piece that completes your puzzle?
THOMAS DOWNING (1928-1985)
Les Danseurs And The Water Glass 5/23/82, 1982
graphite and acrylic on canvas
60 x 48 inches
signed, titled, and dated on canvas verso
Thomas Downing (1928 -1985) was a core member of the Washington Color School. Early in his career, he developed a friendship with Kenneth Noland, who introduced him to other color field artists. Downing later shared studio space with fellow Color School artist Howard Mehring. Downing’s first solo show took place in 1959 at the Washington Workshop Center for the Arts. By the mid-1960s, his work was included in several groundbreaking group exhibitions, including Clement Greenberg’s 1964 Post-Painterly Abstraction exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art’s 1965 The Responsive Eye, curated by William C. Seitz. Downing’s work is in numerous museums and private collections.
