ROBERT SWAIN
Color Affect

May 25 – June 23, 2012

Opening reception: Friday, May 25, 5:00-7:00 PM


David Richard Gallery, LLC
544 South Guadalupe Street
Santa Fe, NM 87501
505-983-9555
www.DavidRichardGallery.com


David Richard Gallery is pleased to present,Color Affect, the gallery’s first solo exhibition for painter Robert Swain and inaugural exhibition in its new gallery located in the Santa Fe Railyard Arts District.

Swain has spent his entire career devising a unique system for organizing over two thousand colors and studying how humans interact with and feel color. His study of color is less theoretical and more empirical as evidenced by his highly systematic approach to painting over the past four plus decades. Through his rigorous evaluations, Swain has gone beyond how we perceive the physical effects of color to how we experience the emotional and physiological sensations produced by color in certain arrangements and configurations. Thus, his paintings go beyond physical observation to a phenomenological affect.

Swain thinks of color as energy and a trigger for a series of physiochemical reactions in humans that results in certain sensations. Through abstract painting, Swain can uncouple color from any cultural signifier and cognitive system and examine the pure affect of color on the human psyche. The emotional and psychological ramifications result from the combination of the particular colors, their values and degree of saturation as well as adjacency to other colors, overall organization and scale. In this exhibition, two series of Swain’s paintings will be presented: the well known meticulous grids with their flat pristine surfaces and his newest all-over paintings with their lush painterly surfaces referred to as the “Brushstroke” series.

Robert Swain received a BA Degree from the American University in Washington, D. C. in 1964. Currently, he lives and works in New York City and is a Professor at Hunter College. He has had eighteen solo exhibitions, the most recent being a major retrospective at Hunter College / Times Square Gallery in 2010. His work has been included in over sixty group exhibitions, including The Corcoran Gallery of Art, The Museum of Modern Art, The Whitney Museum, The Albright-Knox Art Gallery, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, among others. In 1968 he was included in The Corcoran Gallery of Art’s Thirty-First Biennial and again in 1998 for The Corcoran Gallery of Art’s Forty-Fifth Biennial. Swain’s artwork is represented in over 284 private and public collections, including The Albright-Knox Art Gallery, The Corcoran Gallery of Art, The Detroit Institute of Art, The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, The Milwaukee Art Center, The Everson Art Museum, The Denver Art Museum, The Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts and The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

David Richard Gallery is located in the Santa Fe Railyard Arts District and specializes in post-war abstract art including Abstract Expressionism, Color Field, geometric, hard-edged, Op, Pop and Minimalism in a variety of media. Featuring both historic and contemporary artwork, the gallery represents many established mid to late-career artists who were part of important art historical movements and tendencies that occurred during the 1950s through the 1980s on both the east and west coasts. The gallery also represents artist estates, emerging artists and offers secondary market works.

Associated Artist

• Robert Swain

Associated Exhibitions

• ROBERT SWAIN Color Affect
  May 18, 2012 - June 23, 2012
  MORE INFO

Associated News

• April 1, 2023
  Robert Swain: The Perception of Color
  The Brooklyn Rail
  By Alfred Mac Adam
  March 31, 2023
  
  


• February 27, 2023
  Robert Swain: The Perception of Color
  GalleriesNow
  February 27, 2023
  
  


• February 26, 2023
  Press Release - Robert Swain The Perception of Color


• March 11, 2021
  Robert Swain's scaled color studies for monumental series on view at David Richard Gallery
  ArtDaily
  March 11, 2021
  


• November 20, 2017
  Press Release - Robert Swain "Color: Theory and Affect"


• July 13, 2015
  Robert Swain Color Energy
  The Brooklyn Rail, 07/13/2015
  Hovey Brock
  
  


• June 6, 2014
  At Bergamot Station: Great paintingsfor every taste
  Huffington Post, 06/05/2014
  John Seed
  
  


• June 6, 2014
  Robert Swain presents "Color as a Transfer of Energy
  


• May 22, 2014
  Culture Watch: Looking forward
  Santa Monica Daily Press, 05/22/2014
  
  


• May 18, 2014
  Santa Monica Art Events. The Form of Color by Robert Swain (45 Years of Research!!)
  Yareah Magazine, 05/18/2014
  
  


• May 14, 2012
  ROBERT SWAIN "COLOR AFFECT" AT DAVID RICHARD GALLERY
  Eyes In, 05/14/2012
  
  


• May 11, 2012
  Press Release - Robert Swain "Color Affect"