Don Shields
Mission College, Vargas Art Gallery, Santa Clara
February 1-March 10, 2022
Reception: Wednesday, February 9 from 3-4 PM
Reception: Wednesday, February 9 from 3-4 PM
The Paintings of Don Shields
“There is always a bit of a surprise…”
Don Shields’ future as a professional artist was set, when as a young man, he was awarded two of the most highly sought after prizes in the art world: the famed Rome Prize and the Guggenheim fellowship. Both of these allowed him to travel, to live in Italy and New York City, and to create paintings that were inspired by various aspects of the Italian artistic heritage, as well as the history of 20th century modern art.
Historically, artists of the western world were expected to study the great artists of Italian Renaissance (such as Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Titian), and aspiring artists who could afford to do so would make the Grand Tour of the European museums to study the Italian old masters. Don Shields was as captivated by the Italian artists as were his predecessors. Don’s year in Italy as a Rome Prize winner, and subsequent visits to Italy, and especially Venice, solidified his fascination for Venetian Renaissance painters. The paintings of Venetian artists like Titian were notable for their more vivid color and looser, sketchier brushstrokes than seen elsewhere in Renaissance art. These characteristics would become more pronounced in the hands of 20th century modern artists, and found their way into Don’s paintings, some of which can be seen in this exhibit. Also, Don’s love of animals, and his fascination with the lap dogs and other imaginatively painted animals seen in Venetian Renaissance art, led to his series of canine images.
Furthermore, Don’s artistic vision was inspired by his experience as a long-haul truck driver traveling from Texas to Alaska and back. This vision was formed in part by the sensory intake of vast skies and continental spaces seen from the open road. The paintings in this exhibit hint at that flood of light, air, and space that filled a truck driver’s vision. Along the same lines, the view from Don’s painting studio in Benicia, California provided the vast views of wind-swept hills, waterways, open sky, and California light that sometimes can be seen in his paintings. Some of the paintings might even suggest the hint of an exotic, fanciful or even mythical journey.
These paintings reveal the connection to 20th century modernism with respect to their abstract style and vivid coloration. For many reasons, by the turn of the 20th century western artists were abandoning the old traditional styles rooted in the attachment to realism that produced imagery based on the visual appearances of things seen in nature. This resulted in forms and figures that displayed anatomical accuracy and the illusion of three dimensionality both in the figures and in the space around the figures. 20th century artistic modernism yielded a new, more personal approach to art, without the dependence on realism seen in the art of earlier centuries. The result, as seen in the modernist paintings of Don Shields, are figures more abstract than realistic, color that is heightened and intensified, and the illusion of space, that although present, is not based on the traditional formulas of perspective. This modern approach to style can be more profoundly personal, intuitive, and emotionally expressive than what is seen in traditional art, as it flows from the inner life of the artist rather than from the traditional directive that the image should appear as a carbon copy of the visible world. Another aspect of modernism seen in Don’s paintings is the appearance of very visible brushstrokes, a quality that began to appear centuries ago in the art of the Venetian painters of the Italian Renaissance. The primacy of the paint, however, was a modern idea rooted in truth to materials, that paint should maintain its property to look like paint, and that brushstrokes should not be smoothed out to disappear as they often did in traditional art. Very visible brushstrokes, as seen in Don’s paintings, can be a vehicle for increased emotional expression, or even reflect the more child-like approach to painting that was widely admired in the 20th century because it reflected a more free-form, intuitive, even truthful expression of our inner selves.
Finally, Don once stated, “When I begin a painting, I never have a clear idea of what I’m going to paint. There is always a bit of a surprise…” This is not surprising for an artist steeped in modernism. Centuries ago, artists would spend days, months, or even years doing preparatory drawings that would lay down and secure every square inch of a composition before a brushstroke ever hit the canvas. By contrast, modern art like Don’s is about the actual process of painting, and what magic happens when brush is put to canvas and the imagination takes charge. In the paintings of Don Shields we see this magical, evocative, even whimsical world where the inner life of the artist reveals itself in imaginative, perhaps exotic, brightly colored, and expansive spaces inhabited by strange or familiar creatures that stir the imagination.
Helayna Thickpenny
Former Chair, Art and Humanities Departments
Mission College
The author would like to thank Michele Rowe-Shields for her recollections related to the art of her late husband, Don Shields.
“There is always a bit of a surprise…”
Don Shields’ future as a professional artist was set, when as a young man, he was awarded two of the most highly sought after prizes in the art world: the famed Rome Prize and the Guggenheim fellowship. Both of these allowed him to travel, to live in Italy and New York City, and to create paintings that were inspired by various aspects of the Italian artistic heritage, as well as the history of 20th century modern art.
Historically, artists of the western world were expected to study the great artists of Italian Renaissance (such as Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Titian), and aspiring artists who could afford to do so would make the Grand Tour of the European museums to study the Italian old masters. Don Shields was as captivated by the Italian artists as were his predecessors. Don’s year in Italy as a Rome Prize winner, and subsequent visits to Italy, and especially Venice, solidified his fascination for Venetian Renaissance painters. The paintings of Venetian artists like Titian were notable for their more vivid color and looser, sketchier brushstrokes than seen elsewhere in Renaissance art. These characteristics would become more pronounced in the hands of 20th century modern artists, and found their way into Don’s paintings, some of which can be seen in this exhibit. Also, Don’s love of animals, and his fascination with the lap dogs and other imaginatively painted animals seen in Venetian Renaissance art, led to his series of canine images.
Furthermore, Don’s artistic vision was inspired by his experience as a long-haul truck driver traveling from Texas to Alaska and back. This vision was formed in part by the sensory intake of vast skies and continental spaces seen from the open road. The paintings in this exhibit hint at that flood of light, air, and space that filled a truck driver’s vision. Along the same lines, the view from Don’s painting studio in Benicia, California provided the vast views of wind-swept hills, waterways, open sky, and California light that sometimes can be seen in his paintings. Some of the paintings might even suggest the hint of an exotic, fanciful or even mythical journey.
These paintings reveal the connection to 20th century modernism with respect to their abstract style and vivid coloration. For many reasons, by the turn of the 20th century western artists were abandoning the old traditional styles rooted in the attachment to realism that produced imagery based on the visual appearances of things seen in nature. This resulted in forms and figures that displayed anatomical accuracy and the illusion of three dimensionality both in the figures and in the space around the figures. 20th century artistic modernism yielded a new, more personal approach to art, without the dependence on realism seen in the art of earlier centuries. The result, as seen in the modernist paintings of Don Shields, are figures more abstract than realistic, color that is heightened and intensified, and the illusion of space, that although present, is not based on the traditional formulas of perspective. This modern approach to style can be more profoundly personal, intuitive, and emotionally expressive than what is seen in traditional art, as it flows from the inner life of the artist rather than from the traditional directive that the image should appear as a carbon copy of the visible world. Another aspect of modernism seen in Don’s paintings is the appearance of very visible brushstrokes, a quality that began to appear centuries ago in the art of the Venetian painters of the Italian Renaissance. The primacy of the paint, however, was a modern idea rooted in truth to materials, that paint should maintain its property to look like paint, and that brushstrokes should not be smoothed out to disappear as they often did in traditional art. Very visible brushstrokes, as seen in Don’s paintings, can be a vehicle for increased emotional expression, or even reflect the more child-like approach to painting that was widely admired in the 20th century because it reflected a more free-form, intuitive, even truthful expression of our inner selves.
Finally, Don once stated, “When I begin a painting, I never have a clear idea of what I’m going to paint. There is always a bit of a surprise…” This is not surprising for an artist steeped in modernism. Centuries ago, artists would spend days, months, or even years doing preparatory drawings that would lay down and secure every square inch of a composition before a brushstroke ever hit the canvas. By contrast, modern art like Don’s is about the actual process of painting, and what magic happens when brush is put to canvas and the imagination takes charge. In the paintings of Don Shields we see this magical, evocative, even whimsical world where the inner life of the artist reveals itself in imaginative, perhaps exotic, brightly colored, and expansive spaces inhabited by strange or familiar creatures that stir the imagination.
Helayna Thickpenny
Former Chair, Art and Humanities Departments
Mission College
The author would like to thank Michele Rowe-Shields for her recollections related to the art of her late husband, Don Shields.
An exhibition catalog is available for purchase online.
Click the icon below to preview the catalog. (The arrows on the top right will open the catalog to full screen.) |
Click on this link to purchase the catalog through Blurb:
https://www.blurb.com/b/11041432-don-shields |
Paintings
Red Devil
oil on canvas
38” x 48”
oil on canvas
38” x 48”
Banker’s Holiday
oil on canvas
36 ”x 24”
oil on canvas
36 ”x 24”
Saucers Attack
oil on canvas
24” x 36”
oil on canvas
24” x 36”
Ever Cheerful Ponce de Leon, 1984
oil on canvas
50” x 40”
oil on canvas
50” x 40”
Vasco Spies Indian Land
oil on canvas
24” x 36”
oil on canvas
24” x 36”
Vasco’s Secret Island
oil on canvas
24” x 36”
oil on canvas
24” x 36”
Martinez
oil on canvas
18” x 20”
oil on canvas
18” x 20”
Vicious Dog Ploy
oil on canvas
36 ”x 48”
oil on canvas
36 ”x 48”
Does Your Dog Bite, 2007
oil on canvas
36 ”x 48”
oil on canvas
36 ”x 48”
Red Dog
oil on canvas
30” x 36”
oil on canvas
30” x 36”
Short Dog, Tall Dog, 1986
oil on canvas
48” x 24”
oil on canvas
48” x 24”
Don's Studio in Benicia, California
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Don Shields
Artist Statement I grew up in Texas. As a young art student, I spent a good deal of time in Italy studying the masters, especially the Venetian painters like Titian and Carapaccio whose wonderful use of color and abstract form are still with me today. I drove tractor trailers coast to coast for several years and financed a six-month stay in Venice by hauling oil field equipment from Houston to Canada and Alaska on the old AlCan gravel highway. Those landscapes of the open road have greatly impacted my painting. The light in Northern California is very close to the quality of light I experienced living in Italy. Following graduate school, I was fortunate to receive a Rome Prize in painting. It allowed a year-long stay in Rome at the American Academy. Then a Guggenheim Fellowship in painting, awarded by jurors Dore Ashton, Richard Diebenkorn, Robert Hughes, and Robert Motherwell, enabled me to work in New York for several years. I painted large, imaginary landscapes inhabited with figures, creatures, and exotic vegetation, saturated with strong color, like "Pig Turtle Swamp Stomp" and "Fat Boy in Lederhosen." When I begin a painting, I never have a clear idea of what I'm going to paint. There is always a bit of a surprise of the resulting forms in the paintings. There is an interaction of the parts of a painting and the color as the work develops over time. The issue of an unexpected composition and light within the painting is something I seek as I'm working. A sense of abstract means at work in the painting is quite important. An area could be a pig or a dog, but it is also made up of pieces of paint. |