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Eric Firestone Gallery proudly announces the exclusive representation of the estate of Tucson artist Douglas Denniston. Douglas Denniston (1921 – 2004) created a visually stunning collection of artwork that explored the formal purity of painting and the sublime nature of the world around him. During the 2006-2007 Winter Season, Eric Firestone Gallery will exhibit DouglasDenniston: Early Works, a magnificent collection of paintings and prints Denniston created in the years between 1944 – 1955 while he was working in New Mexico and Colorado. It will be the first time the collection has ever been shown in its entirety and the first time any of the work has been exhibited in Tucson. |
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Douglas Denniston: Early Works: Looking at Denniston’s non objective abstract paintings and prints from 1944 - 1955 one marvels at his determination to explore every formal issue concerned with color and composition. On top of this he developed a highly individual and seemingly spiritual inquiry that would shift in subject matter over the years yet remain true to the tenets of American modernism. The paintings and prints Denniston has left us command attention. The artist has imbued each with a personal touch that demonstrates a technical virtuosity and dedication to the craft as well as the confidence of a young man finding his place in the history of art. This confidence reveals itself in magnetic compositions propelled by jarring and incandescent color schemes that intensify within a seemingly infinite number of pictorial variations. In each abstraction the simple modernist notion of flattened color and shape is made mysterious through an autographic handling of brush and gouge together with a unique combination of acidic, syrupy sweet, pure and primary color. Shapes and color expand and contract through nuanced texture and/or hue while figure and ground flip-flop, proving space to be ambiguous. Despite the initial perception of stillness these are active compositions that pulse upon close inspection. |
Texture, developed either by impasto paint or carved wood, gives each geometric composition a sense of fluid movement; however, Denniston imparts a consistent tension as each shape, stroke or cut diminishes or returns at picture’s edge. Once inside the work new worlds are revealed through subtle monochromatic shifts within shapes and from shape to shape. The intimate nature of the work is made spectacular as raking light across the painted surface uncovers tiny explosions that radiate and bounce gently within the borders that contain them. These are dynamic works of art from a dynamic time by a dynamic man. Beginning in 1956 Denniston would explore further the realm of abstract expressionist painting and introduce figurative elements into mythological based compositions. In 1959 Denniston moved to Tucson to teach painting and drawing at The University of Arizona. In the forty-five years to follow, Denniston dedicated every artistic impulse to documenting the world around him. Working in a representational style he captured the abstract qualities of the desert and the people who called it home. This era of barrooms, still-lifes, and landscapes shaped Denniston’s legacy and was sampled perfectly by the Tucson Museum of Art in the 2001 exhibit – Douglas Denniston: 42 years in Tucson. Douglas Denniston: early works explores the artistic foundation created by Denniston and its importance in his later work. The exhibit continues Eric Firestone Gallery’s dedication to exhibiting important works by important regional artists. |
Selected Exhibitions include: Museum of Modern Art, NewYork; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Butler Art Institute, Ohio; San Francisco Museum of Art, California; Denver Museum of Art, Colorado; Virginia Museum of Art, Virginia; Museum of Fine Arts Sante Fe, New Mexico; New Mexico State Museum, New Mexico; Jonson Gallery, New Mexico; The University of Arizona Museum of Art, Arizona; Tucson Museum of Art; Arizona; Phoenix Art Museum, Arizona. Eric Firestone Gallery is located on the northwest corner of Campbell and River Roads in Joesler Village |
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