Paul Rickert (artist)
Encyclopedia
Early years and education
Paul Rickert is an American artistArtist
An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...
born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1947. Rickert, son of noted Philadelphia artist and illustrator
Illustrator
An Illustrator is a narrative artist who specializes in enhancing writing by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text...
, William Rickert, grew up along Wissahickon Creek, where 19th-century artists Thomas Moran and William Trost Richards painted in their youth. The Rickert household was permeated by art and music where Paul acquired a taste for classical music
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
, especially compositions by Franz Joseph Haydn
Joseph Haydn
Franz Joseph Haydn , known as Joseph Haydn , was an Austrian composer, one of the most prolific and prominent composers of the Classical period. He is often called the "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet" because of his important contributions to these forms...
.
Vietnam Combat Artists Program
At the age of 19, Rickert was drafted into the U. S. ArmyUnited States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
where he applied for assignment with the Vietnam Combat Artists Program
Vietnam Combat Artists Program
In June 1966, the Army Vietnam Combat Artists Program was established as part of the United States Army Art Program, utilizing teams of soldier-artists to make pictorial records of U.S. Army activities in the course of the Vietnam War for the annals of military history. The concept of the Vietnam...
. He was accepted and deployed to Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
in August 1966 where he was assigned to Combat Art Team I, serving from 15 August 1966 to 15 December 1966 under the supervision of Frank M. Sherman.
Post-military art career
Following his discharge, Rickert enrolled in Art Center College of DesignArt Center College of Design
Art Center College of Design is a private college located in Pasadena, California, and was cited by BusinessWeek as one of the 60 best design schools in the world. The college’s industrial design program is consistently ranked number one by both DesignIntelligence and U.S...
in Pasadena, California
Pasadena, California
Pasadena is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Although famous for hosting the annual Rose Bowl football game and Tournament of Roses Parade, Pasadena is the home to many scientific and cultural institutions, including the California Institute of Technology , the Jet...
, graduating in 1974. During this time he also studied privately with artist Nelson Shanks
Nelson Shanks
Nelson Shanks, a portrait painter, was born in Rochester, New York in 1937 and lived in Wilmington, Delaware for most of his childhood. He studied at The Kansas City Art Institute and in New York at the National Academy of Design, and the Art Students League. His most famous work is likely his...
. While still a student, Rickert's works garnered the 1972 Gold Medal of Honor from the Allied Artists of America and the 1972 Edgar Whitney Award from the American Watercolor Society
American Watercolor Society
The American Watercolor Society is a nonprofit membership organization devoted to the advancement of watercolor painting in the United States. It was founded in 1866 by eleven painters and, originally, was known as the American Society of Painters in Water Colors...
.
In the Summer 1999 issue of Watercolor Magazine, Rickert explained the challenges of painting using the medium, "It is a very technical medium in that one needs to plan the whole painting before beginning to apply paint to paper. It works so fast and changes so radically, it's hard to control. Almost every step has to be anticipated, including the choice of brushes and colors. That is the key to watercolor."
Many of his pieces feature architectural elements, an interest Rickert developed as a student. He maintains a residence in Stonington, Maine, a location that has served as subject of much of his work as well including Mansard, Shadows, Red Victorian, Grand Night and Through Houses. Rickert became attracted to Maine after reading Eliot Porter's book, Summer Island, that included photographs of coastal Stonington and Penobscot Bay. In the 1970s, Rickert began spending summers in Stonington and nearby Brooksville, eventually buying a vacation home there.
His renderings of nocturnal scenes with soft illuminations and moonlit reflections have generated comparisons of his work with that of English Romantic landscape artist, watercolorist and printmaker, Joseph Mallord William Turner.
Rickert's scenes of industrial sites reflect the bustle of his native Pennsylvania, where he spends the other half of his time. Rickert's influences include Edward Hopper, Mark Rothko, Caspar David Friedrich, Nicholas Poussin and Richard Diebenkorn.
In February, 2010, a selection of Rickert's industrial landscape
Landscape
Landscape comprises the visible features of an area of land, including the physical elements of landforms such as mountains, hills, water bodies such as rivers, lakes, ponds and the sea, living elements of land cover including indigenous vegetation, human elements including different forms of...
s were featured at the exhibit, Industrial Visions at the Rider University
Rider University
Rider University is a private, coeducational and nonsectarian university located chiefly in Lawrenceville, in Mercer County, New Jersey, United States...
Art Gallery. In an interview with Professor Harry I Naar, gallery directory, Rickert explained that he was influenced by the drama captured in the landscape
Landscape
Landscape comprises the visible features of an area of land, including the physical elements of landforms such as mountains, hills, water bodies such as rivers, lakes, ponds and the sea, living elements of land cover including indigenous vegetation, human elements including different forms of...
s of 19th century artist Joseph Mallord William Turner
J. M. W. Turner
Joseph Mallord William Turner RA was an English Romantic landscape painter, watercolourist and printmaker. Turner was considered a controversial figure in his day, but is now regarded as the artist who elevated landscape painting to an eminence rivalling history painting...
(23 April 1775–19 December 1851), an English Romantic
Romanticism
Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...
landscape painter
Landscape art
Landscape art is a term that covers the depiction of natural scenery such as mountains, valleys, trees, rivers, and forests, and especially art where the main subject is a wide view, with its elements arranged into a coherent composition. In other works landscape backgrounds for figures can still...
, watercolorist
Watercolor painting
Watercolor or watercolour , also aquarelle from French, is a painting method. A watercolor is the medium or the resulting artwork in which the paints are made of pigments suspended in a water-soluble vehicle...
and printmaker.
In June, 2010, one of Rickert's watercolors
Watercolor painting
Watercolor or watercolour , also aquarelle from French, is a painting method. A watercolor is the medium or the resulting artwork in which the paints are made of pigments suspended in a water-soluble vehicle...
was featured on the cover of the American Artist Magazine's special edition, "The Best of Watercolor
Watercolor painting
Watercolor or watercolour , also aquarelle from French, is a painting method. A watercolor is the medium or the resulting artwork in which the paints are made of pigments suspended in a water-soluble vehicle...
".
Awards
Rickert has received a number of awards including:- Edith Ogden Harrison Award (Memorial Prize for Figure Painting) Woodmere Art MuseumWoodmere Art MuseumWoodmere Art Museum, located in the Chestnut Hill section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, has a collection of paintings, prints, sculpture and photographs focusing on artists from the Delaware Valley and includes works by Thomas Pollock Anshutz, Severo Antonelli, Jasper Francis Cropsey , Daniel...
, Philadelphia, PA - 1971 Windsor Newton Award, National Arts ClubNational Arts ClubThe National Arts Club is a private club in Gramercy Park, New York City, New York, USA. It was founded in 1898 to "stimulate, foster, and promote public interest in the arts and to educate the American people in the fine arts". Since 1906 the organization has occupied the Samuel J...
, New York - 1973 Franklin MintFranklin MintThe Franklin Mint is a private corporation founded by Joseph Segel in 1964. The private mint operated from Wawa, Pennsylvania but that operation has now closed...
Gold Medal Award for Distinguished Watercolor Art, The Franklin MintFranklin MintThe Franklin Mint is a private corporation founded by Joseph Segel in 1964. The private mint operated from Wawa, Pennsylvania but that operation has now closed...
Gallery of American Art, Franklin Center, PA - 1979 First Prize, Los Angeles Art Center College of DesignArt Center College of DesignArt Center College of Design is a private college located in Pasadena, California, and was cited by BusinessWeek as one of the 60 best design schools in the world. The college’s industrial design program is consistently ranked number one by both DesignIntelligence and U.S...
, Los AngelesLos ÁngelesLos Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, CA - 1997 Charles Knox Smith Founders Prize, Woodmere Art MuseumWoodmere Art MuseumWoodmere Art Museum, located in the Chestnut Hill section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, has a collection of paintings, prints, sculpture and photographs focusing on artists from the Delaware Valley and includes works by Thomas Pollock Anshutz, Severo Antonelli, Jasper Francis Cropsey , Daniel...
, Philadelphia, PA - 2000 Maybelle Longstreet Prize, Woodmere Art MuseumWoodmere Art MuseumWoodmere Art Museum, located in the Chestnut Hill section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, has a collection of paintings, prints, sculpture and photographs focusing on artists from the Delaware Valley and includes works by Thomas Pollock Anshutz, Severo Antonelli, Jasper Francis Cropsey , Daniel...
, Philadelphia, PA