Studied: Randolph-Macon College,
Pratt Institute,
Academie Julian, Paris
With Kenneth Noland, Catholic University

Downing was a member of the Washington Color School, a group of artists who believed that the expressive power of pure color was a seminal component of Abstract Art. He taught in the Washington D.C. and Virginia public schools as well as at the Corcoran School of Art. Initially he painted in the calligraphic style of the Abstract Expressionist Mark Tobey. Later work resembled that of the influencial painter’s painter Arshile Gorky. But it was Kenneth Noland’s understanding of Abstract Expressionism which proved a fresh orientation. When Noland’s “Target” paintings – great concentric circles of stained color – were first exhibited in 1959 Downing recognized the sheer power of pure color and the concomitant necessity for simple, direct form. His “dot” paintings began to isolate color and, through repetition, give it an electric charge. Initially Downing’s acrylic dots were small and drifted amorphously across his unprimed canvas surfaces. But this arrangement limited the range of color and led him to a grid arrangement of large dots which afforded more color intensification. More subtle, yet more open, Downing’s next paintings, such as Untitled, 1964, stand on and celebrate the sheer power of color alone. Downing’s paintings may be found in important museum collections across the country. Literature: Greenberg, Clement. Post-Painterly Abstraction, Seitz, William. The Responsive Eye, New York, The Museum of Modern Art, 1964 Nordland, Gerald. The Washington Color Painters, Washington, D.C.: Washington Gallery of Modern Art, 1965. Alloway, Lawrence. Systematic Painting, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1966.

 

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