David Rankin

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David Rankin is a New York-based Australian artist. He works predominantly in oil and acrylic on canvas, but also works on paper, prints, sculptures and ceramics. He was born in England in 1946 and migrated to Australia as a child in 1948. In 1989 he moved to New York where he now lives with his wife the poet and novelist, Lily Brett. Their three children also live in the city.

Contents

[edit] Life


David Rankin was born in Plymouth, Devon, England in 1946. He emigrated to Australia with his family in 1948. He spent his childhood in the 1950’s in the semi-rural Port Hacking region South of Sydney and his teenage years in country New South Wales, from Hay, Wagga Wagga and Albury in the South to Bourke and Brewarrina in the North.

Rankin is a self-taught artist developing his techniques and ideas in the outback towns of his youth. In those years he read and was inspired by the great artists from Leonardo de Vinci to Paul Klee. He also read and was influenced by the history of Buddhism and the art of Asia.

In his travels before he arrived in Sydney in 1967 he developed a concept of what he wanted to achieve as an Australian artist. His dream was to express the anima, the life spirit or the essence of God in all nature. To do this he declared that as an Australian artist he could bring the elements of Western Art together with an understanding and love for the cultures of Asia and the Australian Aborigine. He also felt that as Australia was closer to the Orient than Europe it made sense to think about the art of Indian, Chinese and Japanese artists, and that one could not be an authentic articulate Australian artist without a love and respect for the artistic and spiritual expressions of the various Aboriginal peoples and cultures. He felt that any Australian Art had to have a sense of place and that is nowhere better expressed than in Aboriginal painting.

In Sydney he secured his first exhibition through Watters gallery at age 22.

In 1979 his first wife died leaving him with a young child. In the same year he subsequently met his second and current wife Lily Brett, whose own life was etched by tragedy with her parent survivors of the Holocaust. She too migrated to Australia as a child after the Second World War in 1948. The artist recounts that his empathy for Lily and the pity for his first wife’s death fused into what he calls “the dark blessing of my life.” The darkness was transformed into images. The author Dore Ashton writes that the events of 1979 and the fire which ravished his studio in 1997 and burnt his art works and many personal possessions, had a profound impact on his work. From 1997 he became more interested in mortality and the works after the fire were called ‘existentialist.’

His life experiences have been transformed into images in various ways across his body of works from 1967 to 2004. His paintings are like contemplations of things seen and experienced. Just some examples of this are his Jerusalem series which followed a trip to Jerusalem in 1988, which then led to his Golgotha works. His travels to the Australian, American and Mexican deserts became the subject matter for many of his canvases, such as Ridge – Mungo, Golden Prophecy – San Antonio, Grey Sonora Landscape and then led to his Witness Series. From the fire in his studio he then painted Buddha and Flames. He illustrated two books by Lily Brett on the holocaust and explored the theme further in his huge work The Drowned and The Saved from a book by Primo Levi of the same name. Through Brett he encountered Jewish mythology and painted Black Menorah and Black Tfiln and as a testament to his love for her created his Husband and Wife Series including Husband and Wife Triptych III, and Husband and Wife – Ying and Yang

In the past three decades Rankin has held over 100 one-person exhibitions in cities as diverse as Paris, Beijing, New York and throughout Australia. He is represented in many of the world's leading collections and museums. He has been lavishly praised in the New York Times for the power, insight and quality of his work. He was selected as Australia's official representative in the UNESCO Fortieth Anniversary Exhibition celebrations that toured the world's capitals. He has been featured in the Salon de Mai in Paris and the Chicago Art Fair. Among the many prizes and awards he has been honored with is the 1983 Wynne Prize, Australia's premier landscape prize. Recently an English-German monograph on his work titled "The Walls of the Heart: The Work and Life of David Rankin" was published by the renowned US critic and art historian Dore Ashton. Ashton is the author of many titles including The New York School and About Rothko. In 2005-2006 a major exhibition of Rankin’s art, curated by Dore Ashton, toured through public galleries in Australia.

In 1989 Rankin moved with his wife, poet, essayist and novelist, Lily Brett to live in New York. From their home in New York they continue to explore both their Australian roots and culture and the opportunities and challenges of an international community. In his long career Rankin has followed his vision and painted images that have spoken, and continue to speak, his unique vocabulary to people of many countries and cultures.

Most of this material is directly drawn from the essay accompanying show "David Rankin Work 1967-2004" by Madeleine Kelman Snow and from the biography at Andre Zarre Galleries.










[edit] Work

[edit] Selected Solo Exhibitions

1968

Watters Gallery, Sydney, Australia

1969

Gallery One-Eleven, Brisbane, Australia
Watters Gallery, Sydney (Progression Paintings)
Watters Gallery, Sydney, Australia

1970-71

Watters Gallery, Sydney, Australia

1971

Powell Street Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
Macquarie Galleries, Canberra, Australia
Ferguson Galleries, Pymble Presbyterian Ladies’ Colleges, Sydney

1972

Powell Street Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
Ray Hughes Gallery, Brisbane, Australia

1973

Llewellyn Gallery, Adelaide, Australia

1973-76

Watters Gallery, Sydney, Australia

1974

Macquarie Galleries, Canberra, Australia
Ray Hughes Gallery, Brisbane, Australia

1975

Realities Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia
Abraxas Gallery, Canberra, Australia

1976

Ray Hughes Gallery, Brisbane, Australia
Abraxas Gallery, Canberra, Australia
Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia (Talavera Road Paintings 1975-76 - artist in residence)

1977

Realities Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
Abraxas Gallery, Canberra, Australia

1978

Macquarie Gallery, Canberra, Australia
Ray Hughes Gallery, Brisbane, Australia
Realities Gallery, Melbourne, Australia

1978-82

Watters Gallery, Sydney, Australia (Portraits of Lily)

1979

Macquarie Galleries, Canberra, Australia

1980

Ray Hughes Gallery, Brisbane, Australia
Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne, Australia

1982

Miller Gallery, Perth, Australia
Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne, Australia

1983

Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne, Australia

1984

Watters Gallery, Sydney, Australia
Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne, Australia

1985

Michael Milburn Galleries, Brisbane, Australia
Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne, Australia

1986

Watters Gallery, Sydney, Australia
Michael Milburn Galleries, Brisbane, Australia (Drawings 1968-86)
Chapman Gallery, Canberra, Australia
Jewish Museum, Melbourne, Australia (David Rankin, Drawings and Paintings for the Auschwitz Poems)

1987

Realities Gallery, Melbourne, Australia (The Rocks and Rain Paintings)
Charles Nodrum Gallery, Melbourne, Australia (David Rankin, Survey Exhibition1965-67)
Milburn Arte, Sydney, Australia (The Colour of the Long Light Night)
David Ellis Fine Art, Melbourne, Australia (The Paintings of Lily)
Galerie Charles Chaneau, Paris, France

1988

Realities Gallery, Melbourne, Australia (The Drowned and the Saved)
Milburn Arte, Sydney, Australia (As long as I am flesh)

1989

Caulfield Art Centre, Melbourne, Australia (An Image of Israel)
Ruggiero Gallery, New York, United States
(David Rankin, The Jerusalem Paintings) [Two separate installations, at 72 Thompson St and 149 Woolster St]

1990

Realities Gallery, Melbourne, Australia (Landscape Paintings)
Macquarie Galleries, Sydney, Australia
Chapman Gallery, Canberra, Australia (Recent Landscape Paintings)
Adrian Slinger Galleries, Brisbane, Australia (Portraits of Lily)
Ruggiero Gallery and Michael Walls Gallery, New York, United States [Installed in the latter space] (David Rankin: Golgotha Paintings)

1991

Michael Walls Gallery, New York, United States (Golgotha Paintings)

1992

Michael Walls Gallery, New York, United States (Lexicon)
Adrian Slinger Galleries, Brisbane, Australia (Paintings 1969-92)
Michael Walls Gallery, New York, United States (Paintings 1991-92)
De Saisset Museum, Santa Clara, University of California, United States (David Rankin: Witness Paintings 1989-91)
Embassy of Australia, Washington DC, United States (Passage and related works)
Michael Walls Gallery, New York, United States (Chicago International Art Exposition)

1993

Margaret Lipworth Gallery, Bocca Raton, Florida, United States
Michael Walls Gallery, New York City, United States
Adrian Slinger Galleries, Brisbane, Australia

1994

James Howe Gallery, Kean College, New Jersey, United States (Passage – Paintings and Painted Vessels)
Michael Walls Gallery, New York City, United States
Editions Southbank Galleries, Melbourne, Australia
Gallery Savah, Sydney, Australia

1996

Troyer Fitzpatrick Lassman, Washington D.C., United States
Embassy of Australia, Washington D.C., United States
Adrian Slinger Galleries, Brisbane, Australia

1997

Robert Steele Gallery, New York City, United States
Chapman Gallery, Canberra, Australia
Olsen Carr Art Dealer, Sydney, Australia

1999

Adrian Slinger Galleries, Noosa Heads, Australia
Art Lunch, UBS Private Banking, UBS Tower, New York, United States

2000

Chapman Gallery, Canberra, Australia
Adrian Slinger Galleries, Noosa Heads, Australia

2001

Centro Cultural El Nigromante, San Miguel De Allende, Mexico
Public City of Cologne Gallery, Cologne, Germany
The Jewish Museum, Vienna, Austria
Charim Klocker Gallery, Vienna, Austria
Ingeborg Wiensovski, Berlin, Germany
University of Queensland, St Lucia, Australia (Political Abstraction in the Work of David Rankin)
Adrian Slinger Galleries, Noosa Heads, Australia (Pictures of Lily)

2002

Adrian Slinger Galleries, Noosa Heads, Australia (From Port Hacking to Manhattan)

2003 Adrian Slinger Galleries, Noosa Heads, Australia (Australian Landscapes) 2004

Adrian Slinger Galleries, Noosa Heads, Australia (The Elemental Union Paintings)

2005

Axel Raben Gallery, New York City, United States (Many Rooms)
312 West 118th Street, New York City, United States (Precious Stream; Recent Paintings and Drawings).
Tweed River Art Gallery, Murwillumbah, Australia (David Rankin Works: 1967-2004) Touring exhibition
Hazelhurst Regional Gallery & Art Centre, Gymea, Australia (David Rankin Works: 1967-2004) Touring exhibition
QUT Art Museum, Brisbane, Australia (David Rankin Works: 1967-2004) Touring exhibition

2006

Broken Hill Regional Art Gallery, Australia (David Rankin Works: 1967-2004) Touring exhibition
Bendigo Art Gallery, Australia (David Rankin Works: 1967-2004) Touring exhibition
Drill Hall Gallery, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia (David Rankin Works: 1967-2004) Touring exhibition
Andre Zarre Gallery, New York, USA (Three Crossings: Recent Paintings and Works on Paper)

[edit] Selected Group Exhibitions

1974

Ten Years, Watters Gallery, Sydney, Australia
Gifts from Patrick White, Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney, Australia

1975

Drawings, Watters Gallery, Sydney, Australia
Inaugural Exhibition, The Davenport Gallery, Tasmania, Australia

1976

New South Wales Printmakers, Contemporary Art Society, Adelaide, Australia

1977

Australian Colourists 77, W.A.I.T., Perth, Australia

1980

The Phillip Morris Grant – Australian Art of the Last Ten Years, Australian National Gallery, Canberra, Australia

1981

Survey of the Seventies, Bendigo Art Gallery, Australia
Directions of Post 1950’s Painting, Burnie Art Gallery

1982

The Seventies: Australian Paintings and Tapestries, The National Bank Collection National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia.

1983

The Philip Morris Arts Grant: Australian Art of the Last Ten Years, Melville Hall, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
Romanticism and Classicism in Contemporary Australian Painting, Geelong Art Gallery, Victoria, Australia
Wynne Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
Acquisitions 1973-1983, University Museum, Queensland University, Australia
Figures and Faces Drawn from Life, Heide Park and Art Gallery, Melbourne, Australia

1985

Contemporary Approaches to Drawing, Naracoorte Art Gallery
Spring Exhibition, Gallerie Francoise Palluel, Paris, France
Victoria: Views by Contemporary Artists, Regional Galleries Victoria, Australia
Australian Painters, Crane Kalman Gallery, London

1986

UNESCO’s 40th Anniversary Exhibition, Paris, France
Surface for Reflex-tion, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
Modern Australian Paintings, Charles Nodrum Gallery, Melbourne Australia
Painters’ Prints, The Mitchelton Print Exhibition
The Challenge of the Landscape, New England Regional Art Gallery, Armidale
33 Men Painters (The Male Sensibility), Heide Park and Art Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
Oz Drawing Now, Holdsworth Gallery, Sydney

1987

Salon de Mai, Grand Palais, Paris, France
Chicago International Art Exposition 1987, presented by Gilian Jason Gallery, London, Navy Pier, Chicago, Illinois
Nice Art Fair, Art Productions, Paris, France
Dealers Choice, Noosa Gallery, Queensland, Australia
Arte Production, Charles Charneu Gallery, Paris, France
Australia on Paper, Regional Galleries in association with Michael Milburn Gallery

1988

Bradford Bicentennial Print Exhibition, Bradford, England
Beyond the Mundane, Beijing, China
The 3rd International Art Fair, presented by Realities Gallery, Melbourne, Los Angeles
Salon de Mai, Grand Palais, Paris, France
First Australian Contemporary Art Fair, (Realities Gallery) Royal Exhibition Building, Melbourne, Australia
Art LA 1988, 3rd International Contemporary Art Fair, Los Angeles, United States
Solo Images – an Exhibition of Monoprints, The Blaxland Gallery, Sydney, Australia
Nature and Technology, The Sannctuary Cove Art Event, Brisbane, Australia

1989

Issues (Drawing), Ruggiero Gallery, New York, United States
Salon de Mai, Grand Palais, Paris, France
Chicago Art Fair, (Macquarie Galleries)
A View of Colour, Gryphon Gallery, University of Melbourne, Australia

1990

Working on Paper, Ruggiero Gallery, New York, United States
Chicago International Art Exposition 1990, presented by Macquarie Galleries, Sydney, Navy Pier, Chicago
The Partnership for the Homeless, Christies, New York, United States

1991

Divinations: Transcendent images from Africa and North and South America, Centre Gallery, Bucknell University, Lewisburg, Pennsylvania
Drawings 1991: USA Japan China, Cork Gallery, Lincoln Centre, New York; traveled to Great Wall Gallery, Toronto, Canada and to Japan Arts Gallery, Tokyo
A Tribute to Ian Fairweather, Macquarie Galleries, Sydney, Australia
Surface Issues, Stephen Haller Gallery, New York, United States
The Artist, The Printmaker, Editions Southbank Galleries, Melbourne, Australia

1991-92

A Wonderful Life, Dooley LeCappellaine, New York, United States

1992

Fourteen Artists – Two Rooms, Michael Walls Gallery, New York, United States

1993

Ten Artists, Michael Walls Gallery, New York, United States
Jewish Australia, The Norman and Sarah Brown Art Gallery, Jewish Community Centre, Maryland

1994

Group Exhibition, AHI Gallery, New York, United States

1995

Up Close: Contemporary Art from the Mallin Collection, Herbert F Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, New York, United States
Art for Children’s Survival, UNICEF / Sotheby’s, New York, United States

1996

Kouroi & Korai, Summer Biennial, Kouros Gallery, New York City, United States
The Small Painting, O’Hara Gallery, New York, United States

1997

Wynne Prize Centenary Exhibition, The Turkish Bath Museum, Mount Wilson, NSW, Australia
Intimate Universe (revisited), Robert Steele Gallery, New York, United States

1998

Seven Artists, Robert Steele Gallery, New York, United States
Swingtime East Coast – West Coast, Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, University of Western Australia
Selected Works by Invited Artists, Bulle Galleries, Melbourne, Australia

2002

The Harding Family Collection, University of the Sunshine Coast Gallery, University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia

[edit] Selected Public Collections

[edit] Selected Corporate Collections

[edit] Selected Private Collections

  • Loti and Victor Smorgon Collection, Melbourne and New York
  • Holmes A’Court Collection
  • Marc and Eva Besen
  • John Lane Collection
  • Price Waterhouse Collection

[edit] Selected International Collections

  • Unesco Collection
  • World Trade Centre, New York (13 Works)
  • Jewish Museum, New York
  • Mishkenot Sha'ananim Jerusalem Foundation, Jerusalem
  • Hamilton Regional Gallery
  • Sam Pees Collection, Philadelphia
  • The Cohen Collection
  • John and Julie Scanlon
  • James Baker Collection
  • Reuters (AAP) International
  • LGI International, London
  • Allen, Allen & Hemsley
  • Mallin Collection, New York
  • Grand Hyatt, Washington (4 Works)
  • Merc International
  • Allens, New York
  • The Bocho Collection, Los Angeles
  • Nightscape Production, Los Angeles
  • Numeroff Corporation, New York
  • Francois Arnal, Paris
  • Ezekiel Solomon, New York
  • Rothfield Collection, New Jersey
  • Dr John Berger, New Jersey
  • Irwin and Carole Silberberg, New York
  • Richard Butler, Ambassador to the UN
  • Dr and Mrs Edward Fisher, New York
  • Richard Pleple, New York
  • Casey Collection, Honolulu
  • Elaine and James D. Wolfensohn Collection, New York

[edit] Selected Commissions

  • Victorian Arts Centre, Melbourne. The Scorched Earth, 1984-85, oil on canvas, diptych
  • Committee for Bosnia, The University of Chicago. A Day for Bosnia, poster
  • New York Vista Hotel. Oil paintings, large watercolours and ceramics

[edit] Selected Bibliography

  • Brenson, Michael: “David Rankin”, The New York Times, New York City, December 21st 1990; p39
  • Carrier, David: “David Rankin’s Jerusalem Paintings”, in the catalogue for David Rankin, The Jerusalem Paintings, Ruggiero Gallery, New York City, 1989
  • Handy, Ellen: “Light of Australia, Walls of Jerusalem”, Arts Magazine, New York City. December 1989 [Vol. 64, No. 4]; pages 51-55
  • Larson, Kay: “Art”, New York Magazine, New York City, December 17th 1990; p77
  • Elwyn Lynn: “Rankin at Macquarie”, The Australian, Sydney; November 1990
  • Lynn, Victoria: “Balance and Duality in the Work of David Rankin”, Art and Australia, Summer 1996
  • Sheffield, Margaret: “David Rankin”, Review, New York City, May 1997
  • Bleiker, Roland: “Political Abstraction in the Work of David Rankin”, Social Alternatives, St Lucia. October 2001 [Vol. 20, No. 4]; pages 3-8, 16-21.
  • Dore Ashton: The Walls of the Heart: The Work and Life of David Rankin, Wien: Christian Brandstätter Verlag, 2001.
  • Dore Ashton: “After the Fire”, David Rankin: Works 1967-2004, touring exhibition catalogue, Tweed River Art Gallery, Murwillumbah 2005.
  • Jeannet, Frédéric-Yves: “From the Heartland to a Hinterland”, David Rankin: Works 1967-2004, touring exhibition catalogue, Tweed River Art Gallery, Murwillumbah 2005.
  • Dore Ashton: David Rankin – The Crossings Paintings, exhibition catalogue, Andre Zarre Gallery, New York City, October 2006.

[edit] See also


[edit] External links

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