Jacob Collins
Jacob Collins (born 1964) is an American realist painter working in New York, NY. He is a leading figure of the contemporary classical art revival.[1] He founded the Water Street Atelier, The Grand Central Academy of Art and The Hudson River School for Landscape.
Life
Jacob Collins was born on August 11, 1964, in New York, NY. Collins comes from a family of artists and scholars. As a child, he started copying works by Old Masters in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. From a young age, Collins knew that he wanted to be an artist, although his interest and skill lay in a classical style that was out of favor in the late 20th century. Moving away from Modernism, he identified instead with works of 15th–19th century masters and their techniques and aesthetics.
Collins studied in Europe and at the New York Studio School following his graduation from The Dalton School. He earned a BA in History from Columbia, attended the New York Academy of Art (NYAA) and the Art Students League of New York. Collins' teachers included painters Aaron Kurzen, Ted Seth Jacobs, and Michael Aviano and the sculptor Martine Vaugel. This education brought together Collins' modernist background and his classical inclinations. He also copied from the masters at the Musée du Louvre, the Museo del Prado and the Uffizi Gallery.
After Collins' studies, his New York studio became the center of a new evolving classical art scene. These painters worked to regain the skills and spirit of Classical art. A number of them have gone on to successful careers and leadership roles in the traditional realist art movement.[citation needed] The Paint Group at Hirschl & Adler Modern in New York, NY was a significant exhibition of the works of this group.[2] During this period, Collins painted portrait commissions and started showing professionally at the Salander-O'Reilly Galleries in New York City.
In the early 1990s, Collins founded the Water Street Atelier, which has trained dozens of artists in a classical manner. These artists include Juliette Aristides, Michael Grimaldi, Kate Lehman, Travis Schlaht, Arantzazu Martínez, Dan Thompson, Tony Mastromatteo, Sarah Lamb, Edward Minoff, Douglas Flynt and Patricia Watwood. In 2006, with a group of former students, he founded the Grand Central Academy of Art, now a hub of the classical revival art scene and housed at the Institute of Classical Architecture & Classical America, of which Collins is a director. During 2007, Jacob Collins created the Hudson River School for Landscape. The purpose of this school is to facilitate the building of a new movement of American art, modeling itself after the artistic, social and spiritual values of the Hudson River School painters.
Jacob Collins lives and paints in New York City. He and his wife, the writer Ann Brashares, have three children.
Work
Jacob Collins’ style is considered Classical Realism,[3] and his subject matter focuses on the figure, portraiture, still life and landscape as well as the occasional interior. Collins’ nude figurative works, especially, reveal a point of view that is distinctly contemporary, and his setups are simple, incorporating at most a bed sheet and a length of fabric.[4]
Collins’ drawing and paintings have been shown with museums and galleries in North America and Europe,[5] and he has been commissioned to paint portraits of J. Paul Getty, Jr, President George H.W. Bush and U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger.[6] Collins is represented by Hirschl & Adler Modern (NY), the John Pence Gallery (San Francisco), Meredith Long & Co. (Houston) and Galerie Eric Coatalem (Paris, France).
Public Collections
- Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge, MA
- The Forbes Collection, New York, NY
- Private Collection of Ann and Gordon Getty, CA
- Mead Art Museum, Amherst College, Amherst, MA
- Steinway Hall, New York, NY
- Union League Club, New York, NY
- U.S. Trust Co., New York, NY
- The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
- Yale Law School, New Haven, CT[7]
Notes and References
- ^ Panero, James. “The New Old School.” The New Criterion, vol. 25, no. 1 (9/2006): 104-107.
- ^ The Paint Group. New York: Hirschl & Adler Galleries, 1999.
- ^ Kimball, Roger. “Seeds of Renewal.” National Review, 8/24/2007.
- ^ Moorman, Margaret. “A Brush with the Past.” Columbia Magazine, Spring 2007: 12-19.
- ^ Doherty, M. Stephen. “The Hudson River School for Landscape: Reviving an American Tradition.” Workshop, American Artist Publication, Winter 2007: 60-73
- ^ http://www.askart.com/AskART/C/jacob_collins/jacob_collins.aspx
- ^ Hirschl & Adler - Jacob Collins