Docent Handbook - Artist Fact Sheet Artist Name: DOWNING, THOMAS Date: 1928-1985 Nationality: American Title/Date: Grid Five, 1969 Size: 96 ½ x 128 ½ inches Medium: acrylic on unprimed canvas Gallery Location: Salient Characteristics of this Work: - Bold color - Large scale canvas - Minimalistic circular forms Salient Characteristics of the Artist/Anecdotal Information: - Art-making, for Thomas Downing, involved what he referred to as “a practice of timelessness...It is a highly disciplined practice, emphasizing repetition, participation, reflection, and exquisite attention to subtlety and endless variations.” - Downing was a member of the Washington Color School, a group of artists working in Washington D.C. in the 1960’s who were primarily concerned with color, - Washington Color School - a movement associated with the Color Field Movement and Abstract Expressionism. Central to this movement is a group of abstract painters who were included in an exhibition entitled “Washington Color Painters” in 1966 at the Washington Art Gallery in Washington DC. These artists focused on the use of bold, vibrant color - Downing had a dual obsession: color and shape, namely the circle, were two of the formal challenges to which Downing dedicated his entire career. In Grid Five, Downing uses the singular form of the circle, repeated in variations of color and subtle patterning within a grid-like structure, illustrating several components of his concept of “timelessness” Information Narrative: - Born in Suffolk, VA, in 1928 - Drew inspiration from abstract artists such as Mark Tobey, Arshile Gorky and Willem de Kooning - Strongly influenced by Kenneth Noland, with whom he studied in 1954 when he took a Life Drawing class that he was teaching. Noland introduced Downing to contemporary American painting, which proved to be a turning point in Downing’s development as an artist - Link with other pieces in the collection such as Thomas Downing’s, Grid Five (1969) and Anne Truitt, Night Wing (1972-8), both of whom are included in the Washington Color School Movement .