BRITISH PORTRAIT ARTIST DAVID DOWNTON
PERSONALLY LAUNCHES EXHIBIT IN L.A.
(April 24, 2017) – David Downton, the celebrated English portraitist, has launched a one-year exhibition including his new “Icon Series” with design innovator Mary Ta. As Downton arrives in California to launch the exhibit, he also has booked appointments for private sittings, to capture select les dames of the Golden State with his elegant brushstrokes.
Downton is one of the world’s most sought-after fashion artists. For the past 20 years, he has created a vast dossier of illustrations for Vanity Fair, Vogue, W, Harper’s Bazaar, The New York Times and many other publications from a bird’s eye view of the couture shows in Paris and New York. Some of the most beautiful and iconic women in the world, including Cate Blanchett, January Jones, Iman, Catherine Deneuve, Diane von Furstenberg, Rachel Weisz and Dita Von Teese, have sat for Downton, and he has captured their unique spirit with his inimitable style of portraiture.
Images @David Downton
“David Downton has the magical gift … he restores in just a couple of measured, skillful and overlapping strokes and discreet highlights the quintessence of life, the ideogram of the mind, the light in someone’s eyes, that ‘mirror of the soul,’” fashion designer Christian LaCroix says of the artist.
Passionate about art and the world of fashion portraiture, Downton’s latest affair is a new 4-foot by 5-foot “Icon Series,” luminous portraits of famous women scaled to the vast white walls of homes in the U.S. and particularly the California market. The large-scale portraits will be launched at Ta’s showrooms, Minotti Los Angeles and MASS Beverly, at the end of April. A limited number of signed, one-off portraits from Downton’s book and small drawings also will be on display (and for sale) at Minotti LA and MASS Beverly.
One of the most exciting announcements is that Downton will schedule a limited number of exclusive portrait commissions while he is in California via Minotti LA and MASS Beverly. While his work involves an interesting assortment of art tools, whether lustrous black ink, gouache, watercolor, oil sticks, or acrylics, sitting with his subject is the heart of the artist’s work. During Downton’s portrait sittings, he captures the essence of his subject over a few hours before departing to his studio in England to render his view into their soul as a portrait.
“Blank beauty isn’t beauty after a while. The turn of the wheel in the gene pool is the opening play, but for any one of these women you have to add in intelligence, humor, dedication and work,” Downton told Vanity Fair. “It’s what you do with beauty that’s the interesting thing.”
Ta, an art collector and avid supporter of the arts, is fascinated by Downton’s diverse artistic range. “We are honored to share David Downton’s prolific work with Los Angeles,” says Ta. “More than ever we ask ourselves how art and design reflects our personal view of the world and ourselves. A David Downton commissioned portrait is an experience of self-reflection and expression not to be missed.”
Downton is excited about bringing his art to the West Coast and working with Ta. “For more than 20 years, style, refinement, beauty and fluidity have been my professional goals,” he remarks. “Engaging with a new audience is a barometer of how successfully they have been achieved, and a reminder that there is always further to go.”
There will be exclusive and public events throughout the year featuring Downton and his work at Minotti LA, MASS Beverly and other locations in California and the U.S