Richard Yarde

Richard Yarde
Born 1939
Roxbury, Boston, Massachusetts
Died December 10, 2011
Northampton, Massachusetts
Nationality American
Alma mater Boston University
Known for watercolors
Awards

Common Wealth Award for Fine Art (2002)

Academy Award in Art from the American Academy of Arts and Letters (1995)

Richard Yarde (1939–2011) was an American artist who specialized in watercolor painting.[1] He worked on oil paintings, then switched to watercolors in 1977 and received almost immediate critical acclaim for his works that drew upon themes of African-American history, Yarde's own family history, and his struggle with kidney failure and strokes.[2]

Yarde taught art at Boston University, Wellesley College, Amherst College, the Massachusetts College of Art, Mount Holyoke College, the University of Massachusetts at Boston. From 1990-2011, he was a professor of art at University of Massachusetts at Amherst.[3]

Yarde often improvised, sometimes while listening to jazz. Several of his works were unusually large for a watercolorist, 10 by 10 feet or larger. His parents were immigrants. His father worked as a machinist. His mother was a seamstress and he recalled this as a source of inspiration, saying “There were patterns everywhere."[3] Healing was a recurring theme in his works and he drew on the images from his own x-ray scans.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 Richard Yarde at R. Michelson Galleries site
  2. Obituary: Richard Yarde, Art professor, acclaimed watercolorist, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, web site. January 18, 2012
  3. 1 2 Bryan Marquard. Richard Yarde, virtuoso with watercolor brush and in classroom Boston Globe, 17 Jan 2012.
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