Rupert Deese | Nancy Hoffman Gallery

RUPERT DEESE

Rupert Deese was born in Upland, California in 1952. He received his B.A. and M.F.A. from the University of California at Santa Barbara. He resides in New York.
Deese's paintings, drawings and prints of the past several years have been much inspired by nature and images of Yosemite Valley's watersheds and river beds.

Rupert Deese, EIGHTEEN WAVES No. 1, 1999
oil on plywood, 27 inches in diameter

Rupert Deese, FOUR WIDE WAVES,
oil on plywood, 24 inches in diameter

He has written of this work:
"In The Mountains of California, the naturalist John Muir describes the water ouzel, a bird that lives and forages along the Sierra riverbanks, staying during the summer near the headwater stream and during the winter near the wider river of the lower elevations. With its seasonal meandering following each turn and drop in the river's course, the ouzel's path resembles the flow and ebb of the ancient glaciers that formed these Sierra River valleys.

Rupert Deese, EIGHT WIDE WAVES No. 2, 1999,
oil on plywood, 32 inches in diameter

Rupert Deese, SMALL RED WAVE (MALE), 1997,
oil on plywood, 26 inches in diameter

"This resemblance shifted my conception of the Sierra Nevada from a scattering of high peaks and ridges to an array of cup-like watersheds joined by their mountainous edges. In these river valleys the flight of the ouzel and the flow of the water echo the indiscernible movement of the rock. The watershed with its plants, animals and geological nature, becomes an entity, pulsing in intervals of days, years and millions of years. In 1990, I began to explore specific watersheds such as the San Joaquin and Tuolumne Rivers in order to observe the curves and pitches of the valleys and ridges and to take in the shapes and colors of their inhabitants. The paintings that grew from this study--San Joaquin River, South Fork (Nos. 1-3), Tuolumne River, Lyell Fork (Nos. 1-7); and the Ripple and Wave discs--derive their shapes, contours, colors and rhythms from these watersheds."

TUOLUMNE RIVER yellow river valley relief

Rupert Deese, TUOLUMNE RIVER,
LYELL FORK No. 4, 1994,
oil on plywood, 95 x 89 x 7 inches

TOULUMNE RIVER green river valley relief

Rupert Deese, TUOLUMNE RIVER,
LYELL FORK NO. 5, 1994,
oil on plywood, 74 x 67 x 7 inches

PALE/1 PALE/2 PALE/3 PALE/4

RUPERT DEESE 2001 Exhibition

Prints by Rupert Deese

Rupert Deese's Biography