Richard Pousette-Dart was an American artist, who represented Abstract Expressionism movement. Richard also produced sculptures and fine-art photography.
Background
Richard Pousette-Dart was born on June 8, 1916 in Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. He was a son of Nathaniel Pousette-Dart, a painter and art writer, and Flora Pousette-Dart, a poet and musician. In 1918, the family settled down in Valhalla, New York, where Richard spent most of his childhood.
Education
Richard's early interests in art and music were strongly encouraged by his parents. Early in his lifetime, he attended Scarborough Day School. Also, in 1936, the artist studied at Bard College.
In 1965, Richard attained Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters degree from Bard College.
At the age of twenty, Richard settled down in New York City to pursue a career as an artist. In 1937, he worked as an assistant to Paul Manship, who was a sculptor. During that time, Pousette-Dart was also appointed a secretary in Lynn Morgan's photography studio, a post he held until 1939. The latter appointment instilled a passion for photography, that would remain with the artist even after he chose painting as his primary medium.
In 1941, Richard held his first solo exhibition at the Artists' Gallery in New York. Soon afterwards, the artist started to collaborate with other galleries, that supported the first generation of Abstract Expressionists, where he also exhibited his works. In 1944, Pousette-Dart took part in "Forty American Moderns" exhibition, that took place at Howard Putzel's 67 Gallery. Three years later, in 1947, he held his one-man show at Peggy Guggenheim's gallery-museum. Also, by the mid-1940's Richard acted as a fine-art photographer. In 1948, his works were first exhibited at the Betty Parsons Gallery.
In the early 1950's, the artist produced a series of paintings, using a variety of white paints, primarily titanium and permalba, reworking old canvases and thinly painting on top of previous impasto. From the 1960's, he developed a dotted, almost pointillist style to create works, dedicated to the exploration of color, texture and form. Richard followed these foundational concerns in his later work, creating into his eighth decade works, that conveyed a harmony of universal forms. Also, the notions of the "square of matter" and the "circle of spirit" became apparent in his work of the 1980's and 1990's.
In 1951, despite his growing success, Pousette-Dart left Manhattan with his wife Evelyn Gracey for Sloatsburg and then Suffern, both in Rockland County, New York. In 1982, Richard exhibited in the main pavilion of the 40th Venice Biennale.
Also, during his lifetime, the artist served as a teacher at different educational institutions, incuding New School for Social Research (1950-1961), Columbia University (1967), Sarah Lawrence College (1970–1974), Art Students League of New York (1980–1985) and Bard College (1983–1992). Among his well-known students at the Art Students League of New York were Ai Weiwei and Zhang Hongtu.
Quotations:
"My definition of religion amounts to art and my definition of art amounts to religion. I don't believe you can have one significantly without the other. Art and religion are the inseparable structure and living adventure of the creative...Art is not a matter of perfect technique; it is life of the soul."
"I strive to express the spiritual nature of the universe."
"Painting, for me, is a dynamic balance and wholeness of life; it is mysterious and transcending, yet solid and real."
"To teach is to learn...If we ever think we know all there is to know about our creativity we are dead as artists."
Membership
Richard was a founder of the New York School of painting.
Connections
Richard Pousette-Dart married Evelyn Gracey, a poet, in 1946. Their marriage produced two children — Joanna Pousette-Dart, a painter, and Jon Pousette-Dart, a musician and founder of The Pousette-Dart Band.