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RICHARD
YARDE
Richard Yarde was born in Boston and lives in
Northampton Massachusetts. He has been a signal presence in the
New England art world since the mid-1960s. He received a B.F.A.
cum laude and a M.F.A. from Boston University. He has trained
generations of young artists at a succession of colleges and universities,
and has been Professor of Art at the University of Massachusetts
at Amherst since 1990. His own work has enriched our sensibilities
as he charted a unique watercolor style. Solo and group exhibitions
throughout the country have featured his paintings, which reside
permanently in nearly three dozen public collections, including
the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the National Museum of American
Art, Smithsonian Institution; and the Metropolitan Museum of Art,
New York.
Yarde tackles the traditionally intimate art of
watercolor with uncharacteristic bravado. Unlike oil or acrylic
painting, watercolor brooks no mistakes. Yet Yarde paints on a heroic
scale with dazzling color, rich symbols and deeply evocative imagery.
Critics have written – and Yarde concurs
– that his body of work has been an exploration of his own
history. Early on he painted with joy and verve. He would splash
the Roxbury neighborhood where he grew up in the 1950s on large
sheets of paper, then turn to rendering imagined scenes from the
vibrant jazz world of the Harlem Renaissance.
Awards
Commonwealth Award for Fine Art (2002)
Academy Award in Art from:
The American Academy of Arts and Letters (1995)
Collections
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Smithsonian Institute, Washington D.C.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
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