Don Nice (American, 1932 to 2019)
Don Nice made monumental single images of familiar American animals and objects, inspired by the meticulous precision of the 19th c. illustrators John James Audubon and Ernst Haeckel. While he is known for his American buffalo, commissioned for the United States Bicentennial in 1975, it is the animals with whom he shared a Hudson Valley home that are the icons of his work. He draws attention to how extraordinary they are by depicting them of heroic size and by eliminating the distraction of backgrounds. The subject of many solo exhibitions, Nice’s work is also featured in institutions including the Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; and the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN; as well as the collection of Chase Manhattan Bank. He was the 2018 Recipient of the Lee Krasner Award in recognition of a lifetime of artistic achievement.
Information Courtesy of Rago Arts, October, 2019.