Magnolia, 2025

Oil on canvas

7 by 7 inches (17.78 by 17.78 cm)

Signed lower right: Bates

David Bates was born and raised in the Dallas area, attended SMU, and taught art at Eastfield College. He has attained national and international acclaim for his paintings of Texas and the Gulf Coast. His works have been exhibited in over 40 museums nationwide including the
Dallas Museum of Art, Carnegie Museum of Art, National Museum of American Art (Washington DC), Museum of Modern Art, (New York, NY), Whitney Museum of American Art (New York, NY), and the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, NY), Nasher Sculpture Center, and Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth.

He has retired from the art world, but he created this piece specially for this event.

About the Artist

David Bates became a noted realistic figure and narrative painter at a time when Abstract Expressionism was all-prevailing. His work is heavily influenced by modernism including the paintings of Vincent Van Gogh, German Expressionism and American Expressionist, Marsden Hartley. He later added abstract sculpture to his pursuits, working in painted wood and painted bronze. "A natural storyteller influenced by his Texas upbringing and affection for family and longtime friends, Bates uses dark outlines, simplified forms, and heavy impastos in compositions that appear at once almost naive and highly sophisticated." (Dreisbach 9) Born in nearby Dallas, he spent his childhood in Garland where his mother encouraged his art talent. His father took him hunting and fishing, and he often incorporated outdoor sporting themes into his subject matter. He earned degrees from Southern Methodist University and did a year of independent study at the Whitney Museum in New York City. There he was most unique because he did figurative work among abstractionists, but he was encouraged by Red Grooms, who made it seem okay to paint figures and realism. He married a fellow student from SMU in 1980 and taught art at Eastfield College in Dallas. In 1983, he turned to full-time painting and became known as a Neo- Expressionist, who interjected both vision and a sense of humor into his painting sculpture. While still based in Texas, Bates has attained national and international acclaim for his paintings of Texas and the Gulf Coast, as well as revitalizing the still-life as a subject of American art-as seen in Purple Irises, 2009. Bates is a compulsive painter who works every day and completes about fifteen paintings per year. He makes numerous drawings before beginning his canvases. In recent years, Bates' sculptures have gained increasing popularity among collectors and critics. In 2014, a retrospective of his sculptures was exhibited at the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas, TX. This highly acclaimed show solidified his legacy as a sculptor--as well as a great painter. Several standing venuses similar to our Venus II were included in this seminal show.