Biographical
Information
A
native of Dearborn, Michigan, Allan R. Banks is a highly accomplished
artist whose credentials speak for themselves. He was the recipient
of the Elizabeth T. Greenshields Memorial Fellowship in 1972
and 1973, The Stacy Award in 1974 and later, an Ohio Arts
Council Award.
Comprehensive classical
training under Richard Lack and later, R.H. Ives Gammell at his
private studios in Williamstown, Massachusetts, contributed substantially
to the development of Banks' work. Visits to Europe brought about
a further development in the direction of his art and a rediscovery
of the role of plein-air painting.
Today,
Allan Banks is one of America's finest living plein-air figure painters.
He has exhibited widely in galleries and museums across the country
with numerous works in private and public collections including the
Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, Connecticut, The Newark Museum, and
the Springville Museum. In September 1996, Banks was one of a group
of six American artists to be invited to work and exhibit with the
Union of Russian Artists in Moscow.
The
recent publication of his works as prints has attracted an international
following of dealers and collectors. Publications of his work include
featured cover artist for American
Artist, August 1987, and the Classical Realism Journal,
1993 and 1996. Mr. Banks is listed in Who's Who in American Art,
Who's Who in America, Who's Who in the Southwest, and in the Dictionary
of International Biography. He is currently on file in the
Smithsonian Institution, the National Portrait Galleries in London,
England, and Washington, D.C., the Witt Library in London, the
Capitol Hill Club, and the White House.
Mr. Banks
paints a variety of work ranging from portraits, interiors to garden
paintings. His commissioned portrait work includes U.S. Congressman
Hamilton Fish, and most recently the actor, Robert Montgomery, Jr.
Exhibitions include a 1996 touring museum group show of the
Classical Realism Society guild members (7) Boston to Milwaukee Museum
to Minneapolis. Critical acclaims were received for his work in a
1997 museum touring exhibition, "East
Coast Ideals" Carnegie Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California.
October 1997, Mr. Banks was one of seven contemporary artists to show
at Sotheby's in New York. In May 1998, an exhibition including his
work was held in London, England at the Royal Society of Portrait Painters. |
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Communicant,
Homage to Bastien Lepage
Oil on Canvas, 2004, 40" x 30"
Children with Lop-eared Rabbit
Oil on Canvas, 70" x 46"
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