Skip Steinworth: Master Drawings

Skip Steinworth Skip Steinworth Master Drawings Master Drawings

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Skip Steinworth Master Drawings

December 27 - February 8, 2025

LewAllenGalleries Railyard Arts District | 1613 Paseo de Peralta | Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501 | tel 505.988.3250 www.lewallengalleries.com | info@lewallengalleries.com cover: Small White Still Life #2 (detail), 2019, graphite on board, 16.5 x 19.5 in.

Skip Steinworth Master Drawings

Timepiece, 2022, graphite on board 22 x 25 in.

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With a level of technical draughtsmanship and aesthetic finesse and elegance that has been compared to that of Dutch, Italian, and German Old Masters, Skip Steinworth (b.

1950) has meticulously produced a body of exquisite graphite drawings over a career spanning more than 40 years that consistently demonstrates extraordinary grace, elegance, and virtuosity.

These intricate tableaus demonstrate an incomparable mastery of light and form allowing Steinworth to transform the storied tradition of still life and elevate its subject matter into paragons of august resplendence rarely observed today in this genre of art making. Through his use of the ordinary medium of graphite, Steinworth captures the mystery that envelops the seemingly mundane aspects of life and impressively conveys its subtle intimacy in gradations of black, gray, and white.

Steinworth’s subject matter extends well beyond the historical trope of memento mori replete with symbolic meditations on the passage of time, to include vitally contemporary and nearly photographic depictions of nature. In all of his work, Steinworth does not seek pictorial illusion but instead desires to grasp what Ingres called ‘inner form’. His unparalleled attention to detail, as he purposefully makes each mark, renders his artwork a depiction of the suspension of time, where a viewer can enter into both the ephemeral and the eternal.

By consciously limiting himself to the ancient and deceptively difficult medium of graphite on paper, Steinworth takes a reductivist approach—intentionally avoiding the potential enticements of color. In so doing, the artist has dedicated himself to a particularly challenging task. Steinworth’s fervent belief is that each pencil mark must serve to define and convey the full intentions of the works.

According to Art Scene Magazine, Steinworth’s drawings are “gutsy in their rejection of bombast.” In their masterful composition, evocation of light, space, and form, they retain a remarkable energy. Like the Old Masters before him, Steinworth pays careful, almost obsessive attention to arrangement, lighting, scale and subject matter, elevating the everyday to resplendent expression.

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Single White Daylily, 2020, graphite on board, 21.5 x 13 in.

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Measuring Time, 1989, graphite on paper, 37 x 49.5 in

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Untitled (Still Life), 1988, graphite on board, 10 x 8 in.

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Mums with Scissors and String, 2019, graphite on board, 14.5 x 15.5 in.

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Pots & Peppers, 2020, graphite on board, 13 x 17.5 in.

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White Still Life with Iris & String, 2022, graphite on board, 19 x 23 in.

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Fallen Leaves, 2019, graphite on paper, 16.5 x 25 in.

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Thistle, 2021, graphite on board, 19.50 x 12.50 in.

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Etherea, 2022, graphite on board, 22.75 x 25.50 in.

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Pots/Plants #4, 2011, graphite on board, 22 x 32 in.

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Beachstones #5, graphite on board, 20 x 30 in.

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Beachstones #7, 2019, graphite on board, 11 x 11 in.

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Shoreline, 2014 Graphite on board 20 x 30 in.

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Beachstones #3, graphite on board, 8 x 7.75 in.

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Shoreline #4, 2017, graphite on board, 18 x 18 in.

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Skip Steinworth

b. 1950, Stillwater, MN

EDUCATION 1979 MA Art, St. Cloud State University, St. Cloud, MN 1974 BA Art, St. Cloud State University, St. Cloud, MN

2003 2001 2000

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS 2020 LewAllen Galleries, Santa Fe, NM 2017 LewAllen Galleries, Santa Fe, NM Stillness: Drawings by Skip Steinworth, Evansville Museum of Arts, History and Science, Evansville, IN 2015 National Contemporary Realism Invitational, M.A. Doran Gallery, Tulsa, OK; also 2014 2014 Face to Face, Artists’ Self-Portraits from the Collection of Jackye & Curtis Finch, Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock, AR 2013 Contemporary American Still Lifes, Evansville Museum of Arts, History, Science, Evansville, IN; Spring Selections, Jenkins Johnson Gallery, San Francisco, CA 2012 Quietude, Drawing Stillness, Jenkins Johnson Gallery, New York, NY 2011 Pismo Fine Arts, Aspen, CO Texas Contemporary, Jenkins Johnson Gallery, Houston, TX Celebrate Summer, Jenkings Johnson gallery, San Francisco, CA 2010 Summertime, Jenkins Johnson Gallery, San Francisco, CA and New York, NY San Francisco Fine Art Fair, Jenkins Johnson Gallery, San Francisco, CA Jenkins Johnson Gallery, San Francisco, CA 2009 Beyond the Object Project, Galley 1261, Denver, CO On Paper, Jenkins Johnson Gallery, New York, NY Black and White, William Blaczek Fine Arts, Northampton, MA 2008 The Object Project, Evansville Museum of Art, Evansville, IN; Greenville Museum of Art, Greenville, SC; Philbrook Museum, Tulsa, OK; Hunter Museum of Art, Chattanooga, TN; Museum of Outdoor Art, Denver, CO 2007 Drawn From Life, Sardella Fine Art, Aspen, CO

1999 1998

1997 1996

1995

1994 1993 1992 1991 1990

Skip Steinworth, Hackett Freedman Gallery, San Francisco, CA (also 2000) Re-representing V, Arnot Art Museum, Elmira, NY A Noble Tradition Revisited: The Contemporary American Still Life, Spanierman Gallery, New York, NY Skip Steinworth: Drawings, Evansville Museum of Art, Evansville, IN Observed Facts: New Realism, Amarillo Museum of Art, Amarillo, TX A View From Within: Still Lifes and Interiors, Sydney Bernard Fine Arts, Los Angeles, CA Paperworks, MB Modern Gallery, New York, NY Drawings Midwest, Minnesota Museum of Art, St. Paul, MN Drawings of Skip Steinworth, Horwitch Newman Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ Skip Steinworth, Jerry Solomon Gallery, Los Angeles, CA About American Realism, Horwitch Newman Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ .

Realism '95, Parkersburg Art Center, Parkersburg, WV 20th Century Figurative Drawings, Forum Gallery, New York, NY The Real Thing, Louis Newman Gallery, Beverly Hills, CA Skip Steinworth, Louis Newman Gallery, Beverly Hills, CA Slice of Life: Contemporary Still Lifes, Riverside Art Museum, Riverside, CA Skip Steinworth, Louis Newman Gallery, Beverly Hills, CA

MUSEUM COLLECTIONS Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock, AR Plains Museum, Moorhead, MN Sagamon State University, Springfield, IL St. Cloud State University, St. Cloud, MN 21

Railyard Arts District | 1613 Paseo de Peralta | Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501 | tel 505.988.3250 www.lewallengalleries.com | info@lewallengalleries.com Back cover: Three Apples, 2010, Graphite on board, 14 x 16 in © 2024 LewAllen Contemporary LLC Artwork © Skip Steinworth