Robert Rector (artist)
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{{Short description|American painter}}
{{Infobox artist
| name = Robert Rector
| field = Painting, printmaking, sculpture
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| movement = Abstract expressionism, color field painting, minimalism
| training = Louisiana State University
| spouse = Lois Behrnes Rector
| nationality = American
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| birth_place = Pascagoula, Mississippi
| birth_date = {{birth date |1946|11|16|}}
| birth_name = Robert Tyrone Rector
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Robert Rector (born 1946) is an American Postwar and contemporary painter.{{Cite web|title=Robert Rector – Biography|url=https://www.askart.com/artist/Robert_Rector/11010012/Robert_Rector.aspx|access-date=2022-01-13|website=www.askart.com}}
His work can be found in collections in the United States, Japan, Europe and corporate collections, such as FedEx Field in Washington, DC and the U.S. embassy in Albania.{{Cite web|title='We're kind of like the Rolling Stones'|url=https://dailymemphian.com/article/17374/david-lusk-gallery-anniversary|access-date=2022-01-13|website=Memphis Local, Sports, Business & Food News {{!}} Daily Memphian|language=en}} His work has been shown at the Brooks Museum and other museums and galleries.
Early life
Education
Rector graduated from Ocean Springs High School in 1964. He attended Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where he received his BFA in 1971 and his MFA in 1973.{{Cite web|title=Robert Rector {{!}} Ann Connelly Fine Art|url=https://www.annconnelly.com/artist/robert-rector|access-date=2022-01-13|website=www.annconnelly.com}}
He was an associate professor of art at Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, Louisiana. In 1981, Rector left teaching and began painting full-time. His work has been shown art galleries in the Southern region and museums in the U.S.{{Cite web|last=report|first=Advocate staff|title=Robert Rector talk set for Tuesday in Manship Gallery; talk coincides with his retrospective show|url=https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/entertainment_life/arts/article_97aeb154-2483-11e7-abdf-ff7dfb9f6391.html|access-date=2022-01-13|website=The Advocate|language=en}}
Career
Rector creates abstract art that is influenced by color field painting,{{Cite web|title=Robert Rector – 1 Artwork, Bio & Shows on Artsy|url=https://www.artsy.net/artist/robert-rector|access-date=2022-01-15|website=www.artsy.net}} abstract expressionism,minimalism and the tension between the latter two. The Mississippi Encyclopedia states "His reconciliation of these approaches has produced complex abstractions concerned with the balance between intuition and intellect."{{Cite web|title=Rector, Robert|url=https://mississippiencyclopedia.org/entries/robert-sector/|access-date=2022-01-14|website=Mississippi Encyclopedia|language=en-US}}
He has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions across the United States, including a recent retrospective at the Shaw Center for the Arts, Baton Rouge; the Ogden Museum of Art, New Orleans; The Hunter Museum of Art, Chattanooga; and Gremillion & Company, Houston and Austin.
His work has been described as an exploration of the "relationship between the natural environment and human experience" through the use of experimental, sculptural surface treatments. The compositions of his paintings reference architectural drawing. Rector works in the deep woods of Louisiana and makes trips to the beach and the Colorado Rockies. His paint-handling involves saturated, prismatic layers of paint that convey an atmospheric quality. Edward Pramuk called Rector "a visual poet."{{Cite web |date=April 5, 2017 |title=On exhibit: Robert Rector – Five Decades of Abstraction |url=https://www.inregister.com/events/exhibit-robert-rector-five-decades-abstraction |access-date=2022-01-17 |website=inRegister |language=en}}{{Cite web|title=Rector: Selected Press|url=https://www.gremillion.com/rector-selectedpress|access-date=2022-01-14|website=Gremillion & Co. Fine Art|language=en-US}} Others, including Patti Carr Black, have written that his paintings are "exquisite statements of color, surface, and gestural form" that is centered on landscape as form, color and light.
Collections
His work is in numerous collections including Apple, Credit Suisse, Compaq, IBM, Louisiana State Collection, Old State Capitol Museum, Saks Fifth Avenue, Tokai Bank, and the University of Texas at Austin, among others.
His work is held in the permanent collection of the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art{{cite web |title=Osumi, Robert Rector |url=http://emuseum.brooksmuseum.org/objects/522/osumi |website=Memphis Brooks Museum of Art |access-date=May 14, 2022}} Ogden Museum of Southern Art{{cn|date=May 2022}}, and the Louisiana State University Museum of Art{{cite web |title=Acquisitions |url=https://issuu.com/lsumuseumofart1/docs/annualreportbook_20182019_lsumoa |website=Louisiana State University Museum of Art |publisher=Page 31 |access-date=May 14, 2022}} and the Mississippi Museum of Art.{{cite news |title=Garden club to interpret museum's works of art |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/185575135/ |access-date=May 14, 2022 |publisher=Clarion-Ledger (Jackson, Mississippi) |date=October 22, 2008}}
References
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Category:Louisiana State University alumni
Category:American abstract painters
Category:People from Pascagoula, Mississippi
Category:Painters from Mississippi
Category:People from Ocean Springs, Mississippi
Category:20th-century American painters
Category:Northwestern State University faculty
Category:American male painters
Category:21st-century American male artists