Walter Darby Bannard (September 23, 1934 – October 2, 2016) was an American abstract painter and professor of art and art history at the

University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private university, private research university in Coral Gables, Florida, United States. , the university enrolled 19,852 students in two colleges and ten schools across over ...

Biography

Bannard was born in

New Haven, Connecticut New Haven is a city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound. With a population of 135,081 as determined by the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. census, New Haven is List ...

and attended

Phillips Exeter Academy Phillips Exeter Academy (often called Exeter or PEA) is an Independent school, independent, co-educational, college-preparatory school in Exeter, New Hampshire. Established in 1781, it is America's sixth-oldest boarding school and educates an es ...

, where he graduated in 1952. He attended

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

, where he befriended

Frank Stella Frank Philip Stella (May 12, 1936 – May 4, 2024) was an American painter, sculptor, and printmaker, noted for his work in the areas of minimalism and post-painterly abstraction. He lived and worked in New York City for much of his career befor ...

and Michael Fried, who were also interested in minimalist abstraction. Clement Greenberg included Bannard in the exhibition ''Post-Painterly Abstraction'' at the

Los Angeles County Museum of Art The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is an art museum located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles. LACMA is on Museum Row, adjacent to the La Brea Tar Pits (George C. Page Museum). LACMA was founded in 1961 ...

in 1964. Bannard was awarded a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are Grant (money), grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon Guggenheim, Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon indiv ...

in 1968. He also served as co-chair of the International Exhibitions Committee of the

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the feder ...

. From 1989 to 1992, Bannard chaired the Department of Art and Art History at the

Coral Gables, Florida Coral Gables is a city in Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. The city is part of the Miami metropolitan area of South Florida and is located southwest of Greater Downtown Miami, Downtown Miami. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 ...

, where he taught painting until his death in 2016.

Work

Art

Bannard was associated with

modernism Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...

lyrical abstraction Lyrical abstraction arose from either of two related but distinct art movement, trends in Post-war Modernist painting: * European ''Abstraction Lyrique'': a movement that emerged in Paris, with the French art critic Jean José Marchand being cr ...

minimalism In visual arts, music, and other media, minimalism is an art movement that began in the post-war era in western art. The movement is often interpreted as a reaction to abstract expressionism and modernism; it anticipated contemporary post-mi ...

, formalism,

abstraction Abstraction is a process where general rules and concepts are derived from the use and classifying of specific examples, literal (reality, real or Abstract and concrete, concrete) signifiers, first principles, or other methods. "An abstraction" ...

and color field painting. His art has been exhibited in nearly a hundred solo exhibitions and several hundred group exhibitions. Bannard's paintings from 1959 to 1965 contained few forms, as little as a single band painted around a field of color, and then developed into somewhat more complex geometric forms by the mid-1960s. The critic Phyllis Tuchman wrote about a 2015 exhibition of these works at Berry Campbell Gallery, "These colors are still radiant. And the artist’s pale palette is as uniquely personal today as it was fifty years ago. You can’t even apply a name to his hues." In the late 1960s the forms dissolved into pale, atmospheric fields of color applied with rollers and paint-soaked rags. He began using the new acrylic mediums in 1970 and his paintings evolved into colorful expanses of richly colored gels and polymers applied with squeegees and commercial floor brooms.

Writings

Bannard wrote over a hundred reviews and essays which appeared in '' Artforum'', '' Art in America'', and many other publications. He curated and wrote the catalog for the first comprehensive retrospective exhibition of the paintings of Hans Hofmann at the Hirshhorn Museum in

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

''Aphorisms for Artists: 100 Ways Toward Better Art'', a collection of his thoughts edited by Franklin Einspruch, was published in 2022.

Selected museum collections

* Buffalo AKG Art Museum *

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston The Museum of Fine Arts (often abbreviated as MFA Boston or MFA) is an art museum in Boston, Massachusetts. It is the list of largest art museums, 20th-largest art museum in the world, measured by public gallery area. It contains 8,161 painting ...

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...

Philadelphia Museum of Art The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA) is an List of art museums#North America, art museum originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The main museum building was completed in 1928 on Fairmount, a hill located at ...

* Portland Art Museum * Whitney Museum of American Art

References

Bibliography

*Krauss, R., "Darby Bannard's New Work," ''Artforum'', vol. 4, April 1966, pp. 32- *Bourdon, D., "Darby Bannard: The Possibilities of Color," ''Art International'', vol.11, May 1967, pp. 37 – 39 *"New Look for Old Tradition," ''Time Magazine'', vol. 93, February 7, 1969, pp. 60 – 63 *Mashek, J., "London Commentary: Bannard at Kasmin," ''Studio International'', vol. 178, November 1969, p. 175 *..... "Canvases Brimming with Color," ''Life Magazine'', September 24, 1971, pp. 74 – 79 *Elderfield, J., "Walter Darby Bannard at Kasmin Gallery," ''Studio International'', vol. 184, #949, November 1972, pp. 184 – 186 *Mashek, P., "His Latest Work," ''Artforum'', Vol. XI, #8, p. 66, March 1973 *Cone, J. H., catalog essay and interview, "Walter Darby Bannard," Retrospective exhibit, Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, Maryland *Carmean, Jr., E. A., "Modernist Art 1960 to 1970," Catalog essay for exhibit "The Great Decade of American Painting," Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas. Also published in ''Studio Magazine'', July/August 1974, Vol. 188, #968 *Walsh, J., "Walter Darby Bannard's New Pictures," Arts, September 1982, pp. 77 – 79, incl. three color reproductions: ''Riffle'', 1982; ''Cloud Comb'', 1981; ''Tarquin'', 1981 *Fenton, T., "Walter Darby Bannard," Catalog for the exhibition at the Edmonton Art Gallery, September 2 - October 30, 1983, organized and written by Terry Fenton (incl. numerous reproductions & photos) *Fox, M., "Walter Darby Bannard," in catalog of show ''Definitive Statements - American Art: 1964 - 1966'', List Art Center, Brown University, March 1–30, 1986, (ill: ''Seasons #2'', 1965, b&w) *Wilkin, K., "Walter Darby Bannard" ''Contemporary Artists'', Third Edition 1989, St. James Press, London, (Ill: ''The Flurry'', 1982) *Koenig, R., "Walter Darby Bannard: Recent Works, 1987 - 1990," catalog essay for the exhibition at the Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, NJ, February 17 March 31, 1991 (ill. in color: ''Osa Montana #2'', 1987; ''Formosa'', 1988; ''The Indians'', 1990) *Humblet, C., "La Nouvelle Abstraction Americaine", a major three-volume survey of American abstract painting published by Skira of Milan, includes a full chapter on Bannard's work, 33 reproductions in color of paintings and a black & white portrait of the artist. (Volume III, Section 13, Pgs. 1480-1513) It was published initially in French and was published by Skira in English as "The New American Abstraction 1950-1970" in 2007 *Link, J., "Darby Bannard’s Scallop Series: Minimalism Mastered" catalog essay for the exhibition "Darby Bannard: The Scallop Series", Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan, Feb. 1-20, 2006 *Rose, Barbara et al
"Painting After Postmodernism , Belgium - USA"
exhibition catalog published b
Lannoo
Tielt (Belgium), 2016, P. 7, pp. 9–20, pp. 21–32.

External links

Flickr.com
paintings
Bannard's web site
selected artwork and biography
The Walter Darby Bannard Archive
Articles and letters of comment, Franklin Einspruch, editor
newCrit
“Plain Talk about Art”, maintained by John Link and Darby Bannard {{DEFAULTSORT:Bannard, Walter Darby 1934 births 2016 deaths 20th-century American male artists 20th-century American painters 21st-century American male artists 21st-century American painters Abstract expressionist artists American male painters Phillips Exeter Academy alumni Princeton University alumni University of Miami faculty