Dallas Collects Roger Winter

Roger Winter
October 27-November 28, 2020

Kirk Hopper Fine Art is thrilled to announce the inaugural exhibition, Dallas Collects Roger Winter, and book launch, The Art of Roger Winter: Fire and Ice, at its expansive new gallery, 1426 N. Riverfront Blvd., opening October 27th.

Texas Odyssey #1, 1994, oil on linen, 24" x 36". From the Albritton Collection

From the hardships he endured growing up in Denison, Texas, during the Depression until now, when his paintings have been acquired by some of the nation's most prestigious collections, Roger Winter has been preoccupied with recording reality in all its strangeness. Winter has painted prolifically and innovatively for over sixty years, following his own path through the gap between abstraction and representation. Intensely observant, the NYC-based artist has spent a lifetime making images that matter out of subjects often overlooked.

His works partake of wide-ranging influences: cows grazing on some godforsaken piece of Texas flatland; an old rusted car resting among chest-high weeds; foxes in midair, leaping above snowdrifts in Maine. Winter paints mannequins in a shop window, the lights inside it and the reflections of passersby. He looks up and paints the vastness of Manhattan skyscrapers, old Coney Island buildings, a burning New Mexico desert, or the luminous Iceland sky. Winter's art acquaints us with his parents, his siblings, his dogs, his wife, sons and friends, the houses he has lived in, and the landscapes he knows and loves. Life astounds him.

Art for Winter was the beginning of a journey all his own—about a time, a sense of place and a commitment as a lifelong educator. He has continually reinvented himself, an artist never afraid of change or breaching the boundaries. In doing so, he has pursued a legacy of endurance and an understanding of the magic powers of storytelling to provide both solace and transcendence.

Union Square, 1988, oil on linen, 72" x 120". Collection of Bryant and Nancy Hanley

Winter is the last surviving artist of the 1960s Dallas avant-garde—a freewheeling, wildly experimental group that brought Claes Oldenburg to the community for his first Happening outside of New York City. Winter taught at Southern Methodist University for 26 years, beginning in 1963, and influenced many of today's most important artists, including John Alexander, David Bates, Robert Yarber, Tracy Harris, Lilian Garcia-Roig, among others. The past recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Painting, he is also the author of On Drawing, now in its fourth edition, which is used as a textbook in many university art departments. At 86, Winter walks to his NYC studio every day, still pushing the stylistic and thematic development of his painting.

Organized as a celebration of his life and career, Dallas Collects Roger Winter brings together major paintings from the significant Dallas collectors who have supported Winter's development over the decades.

As a tribute to his Dallas patrons, Winter writes: "How fortunate I am to have had the patronage of so many Dallas art collectors over the past 50-plus years! Your belief in the worth of my paintings has helped me continue to stay open to change and committed to my work—seven days a week, including holidays. I say thanks to each of you."

Coinciding with Dallas Collects Roger Winter is the formal book launch at KHFA:

The Art of Roger Winter: Fire and Ice
Susie Kalil, author
Texas A&M University Press
362 pages, 212 color, 44 archival photos