The cowboys ride on—as Duke Beardsley paints them—away from who and where they’ve been toward unknown horizons. Their silhouettes remain iconic and recognizable, but the contexts in which they find themselves grow ever more abstract and layered. “With all of these paintings, I don’t set out with a whole lot of finality in mind,” he says. “The challenge to keep them new is exciting for me. I hope the person encountering these paintings feels that freshness.”
No expectations: this is the credo coursing through his studio at this moment. Despite sharing glimpses of works in process, he makes no promises of their appearance at Altamira. “If these don’t show up, it’s because they’re not done for me or for themselves. If they don’t show up, that means we haven’t solved each other’s problems yet. I’ve learned to respect that dynamic: the paintings have an authority that’s as big as mine if I’m willing to go into the studio and be open and be detached from a linear process.”
