Rackstraw Downes (ISBN 0691120471)

Amazon.com Review:
It might seem odd that a brilliant realist painter would choose to spend months working on a seven-foot-long canvas of a boring stretch of the New Jersey Turnpike. But in Rackstraw Downes' hands, ordinary or unappealing elements of the American landscape suddenly seem worthy of close attention. Rackstraw Downes, an overdue tribute to the English-born artist, combines 100 striking color reproductions of the artist's panoramic paintings (including vivid details) with illuminating commentary. After studying at Yale University in the early 1960s, when abstraction was beginning to yield to Pop and Minimalism, Downes found his footing by taking a long, careful look at landscape. In recent years, he has painted sites in Manhattan, including luminous city views and an eerie 1998 portrait of untenanted office space in the World Trade Center. But his major subjects have always been marginal spaces in nature—landfills and scrubland, culverts and dumps. Putting up with the vagaries of weather and interruptions by suspicious officials, he paints these scenes onsite. Lively details picked out in jewel-like colors are united by the precise evocation of light and atmosphere, the geometry of lines and curves, and Downes’ complex system of perspective. (He writes about recreating the experience of turning your head to take in an entire panorama.) Seeking neither to romanticize these scenes nor to critique them—although he is an environmentalist at heart—Downs prefers the naturalist's dispassionate approach. An essay by Sanford Schwartz engagingly discusses the artist's background and interests. Robert Storr, the former Museum of Modern Art curator, analyzes Downes' relationship to key issues of realist painting in the twentieth century. Downes, a longtime essayist, contributes detailed observations about his use of perspective, which lead him on conversational excursions into the history of art. A detailed chronology and bibliography round out this superb study of an "artist's artist" who deserves a much wider audience. --Cathy Curtis

Finally:
As a painter and someone who has admired Rackstraw Downes for a while, I can honestly say that I really enjoyed this volume. It not only provides a pretty extensive collection of images of Downes' paintings, but also generously provides a number of detail shots (something all books on paintings should do). It doesn't even skimp on the essays. What else can I say? If you are a fan of Downes, you would do well to get this book.

All things seen and considered:
Rackstraw Downes is a unique artist. He must have been born with the patience of Job or simply endless concentration patterns, as every thing the man draws, etches, or paints represents the most painstakingly observed detail and transfer to paper or canvas. Though his name is well known to museums and art collectors, the general public is less aware of his prodigious gifts. This superb book should change that. Sanford Schwartz is a gifted writer and his essay on the work and the man is not only eminently readable, it also informs about the clarity of Downes' execution of his landscapes and vistas of cities. Robert Storr contributes another essay that places Rackstraw Downes in the pantheon with other representational artists and surrounds his evaluation with fine art history writing. But of course the glory of this large-scale volume is in the reproduction plates of the paintings and drawings. Generous space is given to define details so important to understanding Downes' gift. And the extended panorama paintings are given fluid space to unfold so that the reader can slowly absorb the incredible amount of visual information Downes gives us. This is one of the collectable artist monographs - in content, in visuals, and in design. Highly recommended. Grady Harp, December 05

Rackstraw Downes by Sanford Schwartz:
I've purchased a lot of monographs over the past couple of decades. I've come across Rackstraw Downes' work in the art magazines for at least that long. When I discovered the a book on his work had been published I ordered it immediately. This artist works out in the environment, painting city, town and sometimes rural scenes. He does not use photography. Most of his paintings are amazing wide panoramas. Mr. Downes achieves wonderful painterly realism which is quite different than photo real painting. The book is laid out horizontally to give maximum exposure to the wide paintings. It is very nicely produced with readable type, numerous color and B & W pictures and articles, a bio and other data that fans of his work will enjoy. Overall, there is nothing that distracts from the purpose of showing off these wonderful artworks. Steve Frenkel Marietta, GA

Painter's painter:
these paintings are so well crafted. i am an abstract painter, and these paintings amaze me in their quality of brushwork, composition, etc. no matter what sort of painter one is (realist/abstract, etc), they can stand to learn something from this talented landscape/urbanscape painter.

Downes - True Painter of the Modern age:
This book contains art by Rackstraw Downes which is more likely to be taken for photographs than the paintings that they are. Now, these are not still life or portraits of people but very common urban landscapes and waste lands. The book also has a section by the painter himself on some of the difficulties faced by artists when the vertical angle seems to change over a wider or deeper view. Is Modern art representative of our age? What tools of our age can be used to truly stand for its time? Jackson Pollock,master of 'drip' technique feels,"The modern painter cannot express this age, the airplane, the atom bomb, the radio, in the old forms of the Renaissance or of any past culture". Downes with his technique of painting what he sees, has expressed modern age with the tall buildings,metal bridges,expressways and cars in a very realistic way like a camera would.It would be unfair to compare a painter with a camera.The book has well organized material on the differences in art by a realist and what a photo can hold. The book also has references to the work of many other artists like Jonathan Borofsky(Molecule Man), Eva Hesse, Brice Marden and so on..