- Thomas Downing
Thomas Downing (1928-1985) was an American painter, associated with the Washington Color Field Movement.
Life and work
Thomas Downing was born in
Suffolk, Virginia . He studied atRandolph-Macon College ,Ashland, Virginia , where he received hisBachelor of Arts degree in 1948. He then studied at thePratt Institute , a well-knownart school inBrooklyn, New York , until 1950. That year he received a grant from theVirginia Museum of Fine Arts , enabling him to travel toEurope , where he studied briefly at theAcadémie Julian inParis .In 1951 he returned to the United States, and after serving in the
U.S. Army , settled inWashington, D.C. , where he began to teach, in 1953. The following summer, he enrolled in a summer institute atCatholic University , studying underKenneth Noland , who was a founder of the Washington Color Field Movement. He became a friend of Noland, who became a significant influence on Downing's art.In the late 1950s, Downing shared a studio with
Howard Mehring , another artist of theWashington Color School andColor Field painting.From 1965 to 1968, Downing taught at the
Corcoran College of Art and Design in Washington, D.C. There he taught several people who in their turn became artists influenced by Downing's ideas, includingSam Gilliam .His paintings to a large extent consisted of circles arranged in precise patterns on the canvas, with colors often chosen according to ideas of
symmetry .Downing clearly pre-dated Damien Hirst's 'spot paintings'.
In the last ten years of his life, Downing lived in
Provincetown, Massachusetts .External links
* [http://www.phillipscollection.org/american_art/bios/downing-bio.htm Biography]
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