Doug Argue

Doug Argue (born January 21, 1962, in Saint Paul, Minnesota) is an American painter based in New York City, New York, United States.^[1]

Doug Argue
Born	(1962-01-21) January 21, 1962 (age 63) Saint Paul, Minnesota[1]
Nationality	American
Education	Bemidji State University University of Minnesota
Notable work	Randomly Placed Exact Percentages (2009-2013) Isotropic (2009-2013)
Website	dougargue.com

Career

After attending art classes at Bemidji State University and the University of Minnesota from 1980 to 1983,^[2] Argue's early figurative works were influenced by German Expressionism.^[2] During his two different trips to Venice, he was deeply moved by such 16th-century Italian painters as Titian and Tintoretto, whose massive Crucifixion moved him to begin creating more large-scale works.^[2]

Doug Argue's 1994 Untitled, an oil painting on canvas (144 in. x 216 in.), is on long-term loan to the Weisman Art Museum at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.

In 1989, after the birth of his son, Mattison, Argue's work started being characterized by the use of parts to render the idea of a whole. He chose chickens as protagonists in a saga where conventionally neglected creatures were turned into subjugated minorities.^[3][4]

Since 1983, Argue's work has been exhibited in numerous solo and group exhibitions in Europe, Australia and the United States.^[5] His first museum show was a 1985 Viewpoints exhibition at Walker Art Center in Minneapolis.

Artwork in the World Trade Center

Main article: Artwork at the World Trade Center (2001–present)

Doug Argue paintings in the north lobby of One World Trade Center, New York City. From left: Randomly Placed Exact Percentages (112 in. x 162 in.) and Isotropic (112 in. x 160 in.). Both are oil on canvas. Genesis (160 in. x 230 in.), oil on linen.

In November 2014, three large oil paintings by Argue (Randomly Placed Exact Percentages (2009-2013), Genesis (2007-09) and Isotropic (2009-2013)) were installed in the lobby of One World Trade Center as part of the art collection of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the building.^[6][7][8]

56th Venice Biennale

Main article: 56th Venice Biennale

In 2015, during the Venice Biennale he exhibited Scattered Rhymes in the Palazzo Contarini Dal Zaffo on the Grand Canal.^[9][10]

Special project (2018)

Footfalls Echo in the Memory, an oil painting by Doug Argue completed in 2018, began with his reversed copy of Picasso's 1907 Les Demoiselles d'Avignon. He then layered the modern masterwork with a blizzard of torqued and twisted letters. The painting (99 in. x 95 in.) was first shown at Marc Straus Gallery in New York City in 2018.

In 2018, his work Footfalls Echo in Memory (2017), a re-visitation of Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, was both the source for choreography and part of the scenography for News of the World, a dance show performed by ODC/Dance.^[11][12]

Publications

Doug Argue: Letters to the Future, published by Skira in 2020, contains essays, a poem by Ocean Vuong, an interview with the artist and 175 color plates of Argue's work from the 1980s to 2019.

Doug Argue: Letters to the Future (Skira, 2020)

Selected exhibitions

• Minneapolis Institute of Art^[13][14][15]
• Walker Art Center^[16]
• Minnesota Museum of American Art
• Weisman Art Museum^[3]
• Grand Rapids Art Museum^[17]
• Cafesjian Museum of Art, Yerevan, Armenia^[18]
• Port Authority, World Trade Center, NY
• Target Corporation, Minneapolis, MN
• Minneapolis Public Library, Minneapolis, MN

^[19]

Awards and recognition

• National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship^[20] (1987)
• Rome Prize^[21] (1997)
• Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant^[22] (1995)
• Bush Foundation Fellowship (1988)
• London International Creative Competition First Prize (2009)