Doug Argue (born January 21, 1962, in

Saint Paul, Minnesota Saint Paul (abbreviated St. Paul) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital of the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of Ramsey County, Minnesota, Ramsey County. Situated on high bluffs overlooking a bend in the Mississip ...

) is an American

painter Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...

based in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

Career

After attending art classes at

Bemidji State University Bemidji State University (BSU) is a public university in Bemidji, Minnesota. Founded as a preparatory institution for teachers in 1919, it provides higher education to north-central Minnesota. It is part of the Minnesota State Colleges and Univ ...

and the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

from 1980 to 1983, Argue's early figurative works were influenced by

German Expressionism German Expressionism () consisted of several related creative movements in Germany before the First World War that reached a peak in Berlin during the 1920s. These developments were part of a larger Expressionist movement in north and central ...

. During his two different trips to

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 ...

, he was deeply moved by such 16th-century Italian painters as

Titian Tiziano Vecelli or Vecellio (; 27 August 1576), known in English as Titian ( ), was an Italians, Italian (Republic of Venice, Venetian) painter of the Renaissance, considered the most important member of the 16th-century Venetian school (art), ...

and

Tintoretto Tintoretto ( , , ; born Jacopo Robusti; late September or early October 1518Bernari and de Vecchi 1970, p. 83.31 May 1594) was an Italian painter identified with the Venetian school. His contemporaries both admired and criticized the speed with ...

, whose massive ''

Crucifixion Crucifixion is a method of capital punishment in which the victim is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross or beam and left to hang until eventual death from exhaustion and asphyxiation. It was used as a punishment by the Persians, Carthagin ...

'' moved him to begin creating more large-scale works. Chicken Painting

In 1989, after the birth of his son, Mattison, Argue's work started being characterized by the use of parts to render the idea of a whole. He chose

chicken The chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') is a domesticated junglefowl species, with attributes of wild species such as the grey and the Ceylon junglefowl that are originally from Southeastern Asia. Rooster or cock is a term for an adult m ...

s as protagonists in a saga where conventionally neglected creatures were turned into subjugated minorities. Since 1983, Argue's work has been exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions in Europe, Australia and the United States. His first museum show was a 198
Viewpoints
exhibition a
Walker Art Center
in Minneapolis.

Artwork in the World Trade Center

In November 2014, three large oil paintings by Argue (''Randomly Placed Exact Percentages'' (2009-2013), ''Genesis'' (2007-09) and ''Isotropic'' (2009-2013)) were installed in the lobby of

One World Trade Center One World Trade Center (also known as One World Trade, One WTC, and formerly Freedom Tower) is the main building of the rebuilt World Trade Center complex in Lower Manhattan, New York City. Designed by David Childs of Skidmore, Owings & Mer ...

as part of the art collection of the

Port Authority of New York and New Jersey The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, PANYNJ; stylized, in logo since 2020, as Port Authority NY NJ, is a joint venture between the U.S. states of New York and New Jersey, established in 1921 through an interstate compact authorized ...

, which owns the building.

56th Venice Biennale

In 2015, during the

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

he exhibited ''Scattered Rhymes'' in the

Palazzo Contarini Dal Zaffo Palazzo Contarini Dal Zaffo, also known as ''Palazzo Contarini Polignac'' is a large palace in Venice, located in the Dorsoduro district, overlooking the Grand Canal, in an intermediate position between Palazzo Brandolin Rota and Palazzo Balb ...

on the Grand Canal.

Special project (2018)

In 2018, his work ''Footfalls Echo in Memory'' (2017), a re-visitation of

Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...

's ''

Les Demoiselles d'Avignon ''Les Demoiselles d'Avignon'' (''The Young Ladies of Avignon'', originally titled ''The Brothel of Avignon'') is a large oil painting created in 1907 by the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso. The work, part of the permanent collection of the Museum o ...

'', was both the source for choreography and part of the scenography for ''News of the World'', a dance show performed by

ODC/Dance ODC, formerly the Oberlin Dance Collective, is a contemporary dance and arts organization founded in 1971, in Oberlin, Ohio, by current artistic director Brenda Way. ODC relocated to San Francisco in 1976 and in 1979 became the first modern danc ...

Publications

Doug Argue: Letters to the Future
' (Skira, 2020)

Selected exhibitions

Minneapolis Institute of Art The Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia) is an arts museum located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. Home to more than 90,000 works of art representing 5,000 years of world history, Mia is one of the largest art museums in the United State ...

Walker Art Center The Walker Art Center is a multidisciplinary contemporary art center in the Lowry Hill neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The Walker is one of the most-visited modern and contemporary art museums in the United States and, t ...

Minnesota Museum of American Art The Minnesota Museum of American Art ("The M") is an American art museum located in the Pioneer and Endicott Buildings, Historic Pioneer Endicott building in Saint Paul, Minnesota. The museum holds more than 5,000 artworks that showcase the unique ...

* Weisman Art Museum *

Grand Rapids Art Museum The Grand Rapids Art Museum (GRAM) is an art museum located in Grand Rapids, Michigan, United States, with collections ranging from Renaissance to Modern Art and special collections on 19th and 20th-century European and American art. Its holdings ...

Cafesjian Museum of Art Officially, Cafesjian Center for the Arts (CCA, Armenian: (Gafesčyan arvesti kentron), also known as the Cafesjian Museum Foundation) is an art museum in Yerevan, Armenia. It is located at the central Kentron District, in and around the Yerevan C ...

, Yerevan, Armenia * Port Authority, World Trade Center, NY *

Target Corporation Target Corporation (doing business as Target and stylized in all lowercase since 2018) is an American big box department store chain headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is the seventh largest retailer in the United States, and a compon ...

, Minneapolis, MN *

Minneapolis Public Library The Minneapolis Public Library (MPL) was a library system that served the residents of Minneapolis, Minnesota in the United States. It was founded in 1885 with the establishment of the Minneapolis Library Board by an amendment to the Minneapolis ...

, Minneapolis, MN

Awards and recognition

* National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship (1987) * Rome Prize (1997) * Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant (1995) * Bush Foundation Fellowship (1988) * London International Creative Competition First Prize (2009)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Argue, Doug 1962 births Living people American male painters Painters from New York (state) 20th-century American painters 21st-century American painters 20th-century American male artists