Darell John Koons (December 18, 1924 – June 28, 2016) was an American painter. He was a member of the art faculty at

Bob Jones University , motto_lang = Latin , mottoeng = We seek, we trust , top_free_label = , top_free = , type = Private university , established = , closed = , f ...

for forty years.

Biography

Born in

Albion, Michigan Albion is a city in Calhoun County in the south central region of the Lower Peninsula of the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 8,616 at the 2010 census and is part of the Battle Creek Metropolitan Statistical Area. The earliest English-s ...

, Koons earned a bachelor's degree in art from BJU in 1951 and a master of arts degree in art education from

Western Michigan University Western Michigan University (Western Michigan, Western or WMU) is a public research university in Kalamazoo, Michigan. It was initially established as Western State Normal School in 1903 by Governor Aaron T. Bliss for the training of teachers ...

in 1955. Koons had more than 45 one-man

exhibitions An exhibition, in the most general sense, is an organized presentation and display of a selection of items. In practice, exhibitions usually occur within a cultural or educational setting such as a museum, art gallery An art gallery is a roo ...

, including exhibitions at University of South Carolina, Wake Forest University, the

Mint Museum The Mint Museum, also referred to as The Mint Museums, is a cultural institution comprising two museums, located in Charlotte, North Carolina. The Mint Museum Randolph and Mint Museum Uptown, together these two locations have hundreds of collection ...

, Charlotte, NC, Columbus Museum, Columbus, GA, and the Washington County Museum of Art, Hagerstown, MD; and he participated in at least that many group exhibitions throughout the United States. Of Koons’ approximately 2,700 paintings, hundreds are in public and private collections including the Gibbes Gallery, Charleston, SC; the Greenville County Museum of Art, Greenville, SC; the South Carolina State Art Collection; the Governor’s Mansion, Columbia, SC; The Mint Museum, Charlotte, NC; Eastern Michigan University; Warren Wilson College, Swannanoa, NC; Central Wesleyan College, Central, SC; the W. Clement Stone Collection, Chicago; and the Indonesian Embassy. Koons’ paintings have been published in ''Contemporary Artists of South Carolina'', ''Artist/U.S.A.'', and three editions of ''Prizewinning Art''. In September 2019, a retrospective exhibit was held on the campus of Bob Jones University. Art critics have called Koons' distinctive style “magic realistic,” because the viewer tends to read into the picture more than actually appears. Koons’ deceptively simple paintings, mostly in watercolor or polymer, give the viewer an impression of extreme detail in old buildings such as barns, cotton gins, and mills. In a 2010 interview, Koons told a reporter, " Bob Jones, Sr. once said you can't get the sand out the country boy's ears. That's true with me. An artist must know something about his subject or he will surely have difficulty painting it. My experience as a child and youth in rural Michigan has given me knowledge of my subjects, thus the opportunity to record this passing history of Americana." In a 1972 interview, Koons noted that he enjoyed playing with space, especially in a building opening. He virtually never included figures in his paintings but he often teased the viewer with open doors that "give the impression of recent activity." Koons’ work has been compared to that of

Andrew Wyeth Andrew Newell Wyeth ( ; July 12, 1917 – January 16, 2009) was an American visual artist, primarily a realist painter, working predominantly in a regionalist style. He was one of the best-known U.S. artists of the middle 20th century. In his ...

, although Koons himself believed the greatest influences on his art were the shadows and simplicity of

Edward Hopper Edward Hopper (July 22, 1882 – May 15, 1967) was an American realist painter and printmaker. While he is widely known for his oil paintings, he was equally proficient as a watercolorist and printmaker in etching. Hopper created subdued drama ...

and the straight lines of Mondrian. Koons made a hobby of giving religious “chalk talks” to church groups especially during the Christmas and Easter seasons. In 1970, Koons joined two other BJU faculty members, Emery Bopp and

Carl Blair Carl Blair (November 28, 1932 – January 22, 2018) was an artist and, for more than forty years, a member of the art faculty at Bob Jones University. Biography A native of Atchison, Kansas, Blair earned a B. A. in art at the University of Kansas ...

, to found Hampton III Gallery, one of the first commercial galleries in Upstate South Carolina.Hampton III Gallery home page.

Notes and references

{{DEFAULTSORT:Koons, Darell 1924 births 2016 deaths 20th-century American painters American male painters 21st-century American painters 21st-century American male artists Modern painters Painters from South Carolina People from Greenville, South Carolina People from Albion, Michigan Bob Jones University faculty Western Michigan University alumni Bob Jones University alumni 20th-century American male artists