Robert Duran
Robert Duran (b. 1938, Salinas, CA; d. 2005, New Jersey) found his way from San Francisco to New York City in the mid-1960s, where he became associated with a Minimalist cohort that included Brice Marden, David Novros, and Paul Mogensen. Although he took up the visual conventions of Minimalism, Duran’s monumental paintings were defiantly experimental and trend-resistant. His bold entropic patterns were inspired by the textiles and diagrams encountered during his extensive travels through India, Nepal, and Tibet. As Carter Ratcliff wrote in 1973, Duran’s paintings show “extraordinary power in the deployment of their color-shapes—extraordinary because it is not in the least logical, and yet it finds a coherence with the authority of logic.” Until his first solo show with Karma in 2019, Duran had not exhibited in New York City since 1977. In the time intervening before his death in 2005, Duran continued his rigorous practice. He had presented six solo exhibitions with Klaus Kertess’s Bykert Gallery, and was included in the 1966 Park Place Gallery Invitational, the 1969 Whitney Museum Annual Exhibition, and the Wellspring 1973 Whitney Biennial, among others.
His work can be found in the public collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York; Empire State Plaza Art Collection, New York, New York; and Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock, Arkansas.
Photo: Stephanie Chrisman
Born 1938, Salinas, California
Died 2005, New Jersey
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2019
Karma, New York
1977
Susan Caldwell Inc., New York
1975
Susan Caldwell Inc., New York
The Texas Gallery, Houston
1974
Bykert Gallery, New York
1973
The Texas Gallery, Houston
1972
Bykert Gallery, New York
1971
Bykert Gallery, New York
Bykert Gallery, New York
1968
Bykert Gallery, New York
1967
Bykert Gallery, New York
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
1977
Susan Caldwell Gallery, New York
1976
Akron Art Institute, Akron, Ohio, Contemporary Images in Watercolor
Emory University, Atlanta, Atlanta Collects
Georgia State University Art Gallery, Atlanta, Ten Painters
1975
Susan Caldwell Gallery, New York, 22 Artists
Susan Caldwell Gallery, New York, Summer Show
Lowe Art Gallery, College of Visual and Performing Arts, Syracuse, New York, Contemporary Paintings, Review of the New York Gallery Season 1974–1975
1974
Susan Caldwell Gallery, New York
1973
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Whitney Biennial
Vassar College of Art Gallery, Poughkeepsie, New York, New American Abstract Painting
1972
Richard Gray Gallery, Chicago, New York
Storm King Art Center, Mountainville, New York, Painting and Sculpture 1972
Vassar College of Art Gallery, Poughkeepsie, New York, Current American Abstract Painting
1971
Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts, Columbus, Ohio, Beaux Arts Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Exhibition
Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington DC, 32nd Biennial Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting
1970
Bykert Gallery, New York
Aldrich Museum, Ridgefield, Connecticut, Highlights of the 1969-70 Art Season
1969
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York Annual Exhibition
Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Between Object and Environment, Sculpture
in an Extended Format
1967
Bykert Gallery, New York
Ithaca College Museum of Art, Ithaca, New York, Drawings
University of Omaha, Nebraska; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas; School of Architecture, Clemson University, Clemson, South Carolina; organized by the American Federation of Arts, Rejective Art, curated by Lucy Lippard
Bykert Gallery, New York
1966
Park Place Gallery, New York, Park Place Invitational
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Museum of Modern Art, New York
Empire State Plaza Art Collection, New York
Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock, Arkansas
AWARDS AND GRANTS
1969
Guggenheim Fellowship in Painting
1979
National Endowment of the Arts
PUBLICATIONS
2019
Robert Duran: 1968–1970
Karma, New York
48 pages
9 1/2 × 11 3/4 inches
