Kaye's Farm, Late Summer

Label Text Kaye's Farm, Late Summer depicts a scene near Millbrook, New York, not far from the Connecticut border. Portraits and landscapes are Beckman's major theme and in the latter area he has acknowledged his debt to the 17th century Dutch landscapists and to the 19th century English artist, John Constable. He is interested in capturing the changing effects of light and weather on the land. He is also interested in describing man's impact on nature as well. In this pastel, a man's presence is implied through the buildings he has constructed, through the fences he has built, through the animals he has domesticated, and through the fields he has cultivated. Although Beckman depicts a person driving a tractor in the left foreground of the drawing, that figure is not really essential to prove that the landscape has been altered by human beings in a benign and constructive manner. Typically Beckman worked on a large pastel over a few months, beginning with pencil sketches and drawings from nature, proceeding then to pastels of modest size, and then to the large finished pastels, which were executed in the artist's studio but interspersed with visits to the landscapes to refresh his eye and his memory of the scene.The works are meticulously detailed but not photographic. Beckman was born in 1942 in the small community of Maynard in western Minnesota where his parents owned a farm. He was oblivious to art until, at the age of 19, a chance visit to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts opened his eyes and imagination to a world he had not known existed. He received his undergraduate degree at St. Cloud State University where he painted in a loose, freely brushed figurative style, and when he transferred to the University of Iowa as a graduate student his inclination toward clarity and meticulous detail came to the fore. In 1969 he received an M.F.A. degree from the university and then moved to New York City shortly afterward. Later he and his family moved to a farm in Dutchess County in New York State. Source: Bulletin, May-June, 1983.
Exhibition History"William Beckman - Landscape Pastels," Allan Frumkin Gallery, N.Y., 1982
Published ReferencesDES MOINES ART CENTER: SELECTED PAINTINGS, SCULPTURES AND WORKS ON PAPER, a catalog of selections from the permanent collection published in 1985, cat. ref. p.31, ill. pl.12, p.31

DMAC Bulletin, May/June 1983, cover ill.

"William Beckman - Landscape Pastels," Allan Frumkin Gallery, N. Y., 1982, cat. no.1, color ill.

DimensionsFrame: 34 × 61 5/8 × 2 in. (86.4 × 156.5 × 5.1 cm)
Image: 25 5/8 × 54 in. (65.1 × 137.2 cm)

Accession Number 1983.1

Classificationswork on paper

SignedWB 82 (l,r)

ProvenanceArtist. (Allan Frumkin Gallery, New York); Dwight Kirsch, Des Moines [purchased from the previous]; Des Moines Art Center [bequest of the previous, 1983]