Stephen T. Rascoe (1924–2008)The art of Stephen Rascoe (1924–2008) spans six decades, and encompasses the vast array of colors, lines, shapes, and vignettes that both defined the artist’s experiences and sparked his creativity from the time he was a boy throughout his entire life. Rascoe transformed the many landscapes, interiors, and people he encountered into rich, vibrant compositions filled with recognizable imagery infused with abstracted elements highlighting the fundamental visual elements and spatial relationships within the picture plane. A veteran of World War II and graduate of the Art Institute of Chicago, Rascoe was exposed to a broad range of geographies, cultures, and philosophies. The effects of these experiences informed Rascoe’s work significantly yet judiciously, as he maintained an unfailing commitment to impart a certain naturalism and beauty into everything he produced. Ultimately, Rascoe wanted to make “the kind of art you can live with.” Rascoe worked professionally from 1951 to 2008, and during that time left an indelible impression on collectors, students, and the art community in North Texas and across the United States. Rascoe was a fixture of the postwar Texas art scene who frequently showed alongside mid-century contemporaries such as Otis Dozier, Kelly Fearing, Michael Frary, DeForest Judd, William Lester, Everett Spruce, and Charles Umlauf, along with Fort Worth Circle artists Bill Bomar, Dickson Reeder, and Bror Utter. Of Rascoe’s work, the Dallas Morning News wrote, “His style tends to quietly abstract essentials of form, not starkly or irresponsibly, but boldly, with sinew of structure dominating mood.” Likewise, the Corpus Christi Caller-Times described his work as having “a controlled yet rich palette, linear variation, and accent… carefully planned and skillfully applied color… and Expressionist-like masculinity of attack.” Born in Uvalde, Texas, in 1924, Rascoe grew up in Corpus Christi, and then attended the University of Texas, before serving in World War II. He completed his undergraduate work in Fine Art at the Art Institute of Chicago, where he subsequently earned an MFA in 1951. After working as a draftsman for Texaco and then Shell Oil, in 1964, Rascoe took a position as art instructor at UTA—a post offered to him by Howard Joyner, who founded the art program at the university and also played a key role in the development of the Arlington Art Association, and eventually the Arlington Museum of Art. Rascoe served as professor of art at UTA until his retirement in 1992. Rascoe’s paintings can be found in the permanent collections of the Dallas Museum of Art, the Houston Museum of Art, the Art Museum of South Texas, the Texas A&M University Museum, UTA, Southern Methodist University, Texas Fine Arts Association Laguna Gloria Museum, and the Blanton Museum of Art in Austin. His work also appears in numerous private and public collections. - Biography of Stephen Rascoe by Paula Kornye Tillman Artist StatementIn my life’s work, I have been influenced by most of the international art styles, but I take from the style and join it to what I see in nature, distilling the complexity of nature by the style. I have painted large, very abstract paintings for museums shows, but I finally decided that what I like best is to paint what I would like to live with, and that I hope other people will like to live with, too. This has reinforcement in something that Jean Renoir, the film maker, expressed when he was interviewed after the theft of his father’s (Pierre Auguste Renoir) paintings from his home in Hollywood. He said (sic) “I hope that whoever has them will enjoy them as much as I did over my lifetime.” When I started a painting, I always have something in mind that I want to do (sometimes making sketches beforehand), but it’s like a voyage of discovery. It is always exciting to start out and encounter “accidents” along the way, that add up to make the painting come alive. One example would be the overlapping of some colors with other colors. Many times, I think in terms of seeing something through something else – a sunrise or sunset through a forest, or oranges on a table through a vase, or light through a flight of birds, or through a complex silhouette of racing horsemen. My long-time Dallas art dealer, Mary Nye, wrote a note on one of my invoices, toa potential purchaser of a seagull painting, “Flight in Golden Sunlight”: “This is a constant theme – to catch the sound and action of birds in flight.” Then she went on to list several clients, describing seagull paintings od mine that they had purchases. Sailboats are frequently the subject of my paintings. They, like the seagulls, are symbols of freedom. Often my paintings combine sailboats and seagulls. Stephen Thomas Rascoe (1924-2008) B. Uvalde D: Arlington.Painter, watercolorist.Corpus Christi. Studied: Del Mar College; University of Texas, Austin; Art Institute of Chicago (B.F.A., 1949, M.F.A., 1951); Antonio Garcia. Member: Texas Fine Arts Association; South Texas Art League (president);Arlington Art Association; Fort Worth Art Association; Dallas Art Association. Solo Exhibitions1952 Solo, James Bute Co. Gallery, Houston, TX 1953 Solo, James Bute Co. Gallery, Houston, TX 1954, Solo, Little Theater, Corpus Christi, TX~Including: Still Life with Mowers, Dark Bird, Palms, Desert Village, Landscape with Trees, Bicycle Parade, Landscape with Horses, Boats at Dawn, The Bridge and Fleet of Small Boats 1958 Solo, Southwest Texas State College, San Marcos, TX 1958 Solo, James Bute Gallery, Houston, TX 1958 Solo, Nye Gallery, Dallas, TX ~Rocks and Sea, Tropical City, Still Life with Bouquet, Dark Mountain, Driftwood and Birds, Mountains, Sea Birds and Driftwood, Landscape with Christmas Trees, Bouquet on a Balcony, Rocks-Sea and Sky, Seascape, Still Life with White and Blue Bouquet, Mountain in the Rain, Driftwood with Three Clouds, Sea Gulls, Scene From a Balcony, Still Life with Yellow Bouquet, Seascape with Nets and Boats, Girl with Bouquet, Landscape with Lake 1959 Solo, Museum for Contemporary Art, Waco, TX 1959 Solo, Mary Nye Contemporary Art Gallery, Dallas, TX~Harbor Dawn 1960 Solo, Centennial Museum, Corpus Christi, TX 1962 Solo, Mary Nye Contemporary Art Gallery, Dallas, TX 1962 Solo, Laredo States Art Association, Laredo, TX 1963 Solo, Mary Nye Contemporary Art Gallery, Dallas, TX~The Sea 1964 Solo, Mary Nye Contemporary Art Gallery, Dallas, TX 1964 Solo, Texarkana Art Gallery, Texarkana, TX 1966 Solo, Mary Nye Contemporary Art Gallery, Dallas, TX 1966 Solo, University of Corpus Christi, Corpus Christi, TX 1969 Solo, Mary Nye Contemporary Art Gallery, Dallas, TX 1988 Solo, Arlington Museum of Art, Arlington, TX 2004 Solo, 80th Birthday Celebration, Galerie Kornye West, Fort Worth, TX 2007 Solo, Galerie Kornye West, Fort Worth, TX Selected Exhibitions1951 Corpus Christi Art Foundation Exhibition, Corpus Christi, TX~Adobe Village (watercolor) (honorable mention) 1951 Southwestern Prints and Drawings Exhibition, DMFA, Dallas, TX ~Bullfight (linocut) 1952 Houston Local Artists Exhibition, MFAH, Houston, TX~Landscape with Red Trees (prize)~House on the Beach 1952 Texas Fine Arts Association, Austin, TX 1952 Texas Contemporary Artists, M. Knoedler and Company, New York, NY; Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, TX 1952 Texas Watercolor Society~Church~Adobe Village (prize) 1953 Texas Fine Arts Association, Austin, TX 1953 Texas General/Texas Painting and Sculpture Exhibition, DMFA, Dallas, TX; MFAH, Houston, TX~Small Boats at Dawn 1953 South Texas Art League, Corpus Christi, Tx 1954 South Texas Art League, Corpus Christi, Tx ~ Bridge at Night (honorable mention) 1955 South Texas Art League, Corpus Christi, Tx ~ Small Boats (prize) 1955 Texas General/Texas Painting and Sculpture Exhibition, DMFA, Dallas, TX; MFAH, Houston, TX~Small Boats 1956 South Texas Art League, Corpus Christi, Tx ~ Landscape (prize) 1956 Texas General/Texas Painting and Sculpture Exhibition, DMFA, Dallas, TX; MFAH, Houston, TX~Oil Field at Night (MFAH purchase prize) 1956 Corpus Christi Art Foundation Exhibition, Corpus Christi, TX ~Sea Gulls (prize) 1957 Corpus Christi Art Foundation Exhibition, Corpus Christi, TX ~Seascape (prize) 1957 Texas General/Texas Painting and Sculpture Exhibition, DMFA, Dallas, TX; MFAH, Houston, TX~Canyon Walls (DMFA purchase prize) 1957 Longview Junior Service League Annual Invitationals, Longview, TX 1958 Texas General/Texas Painting and Sculpture Exhibition, DMFA, Dallas, TX; MFAH, Houston, TX~Still Life on an Orange Table 1958 Longview Junior Service League Annual Invitationals, Longview, TX 1958 Texas Fine Arts Association, Austin, TX~White Wave~Tideland Sunrise 1958 Texas Fine Arts Association, Austin, TX~Tideland 1958 D. D. Feldman Collection of Contemporary Art, DMFA, Dallas, TX 1958 Art USA, Madison Square Garden, New York, NY 1958 Texas Oil ‘58, A Salute to the Oil Industry of the State by Texas Painters, Dallas Public Library, Dallas, TX~Offshore (prize) 1958 Artists West of the Mississippi, Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO~Sun Patterns 1959 Longview Junior Service League Annual Invitationals, Longview, TX 1959 Texas Fine Arts Association, Austin, TX ~ Sunrise~Still Life with Driftwood 1959 Texas General/Texas Painting and Sculpture Exhibition, DMFA, Dallas, TX; MFAH, Houston, TX~Waterfall 1959 D. D. Feldman Collection of Contemporary Art, DMFA, Dallas, TX~Oil Field Lights (purchase prize) 1959 15 From Texas, Harwood Gallery, Taos, NM ~The Pink Mountain 1959 Sarasota Annuals, Sarasota, FL 1959 Made in Texas by Texans, Dallas Museum for Contemporary Arts, Dallas, TX~Sunrise Reflections 1960 Mary Nye Contemporary Art Gallery, Dallas, TX 1960 Longview Junior Service League Annual Invitationals, Longview, TX 1960 D. D. Feldman Collection of Contemporary Art, DMFA, Dallas, TX 1960 Southwestern Art: A Sampling of Contemporary Painting and Sculpture, Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, Dallas, TX~Canyon Walls 1961 Longview Junior Service League Annual Invitationals, Longview, TX 1962 Texas Fine Arts Association, Austin, TX~Vertical Landscape 1962 Joint with Hiram Williams, Nye Gallery, Dallas, TX 1962 Longview Junior Service League Annual Invitationals, Longview, TX 1962 Southwestern States Annual Exhibition, Roswell, NM 1962-3 Texas General/Texas Painting and Sculpture Exhibition, DMFA, Dallas, TX; MFAH, Houston, TX~The Storm 1963 Texas General/Texas Painting and Sculpture Exhibition, DMFA, Dallas, TX; MFAH, Houston, TX~Reflections in a Small Harbor 1963 Longview Junior Service League Annual Invitationals, Longview, TX 1963 69th Annual for Western Artists, Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO 1964 Longview Junior Service League Annual Invitationals, Longview, TX 1965 Mary Nye Contemporary Art Gallery, Dallas, TX 1965 Longview Junior Service League Annual Invitationals, Longview, TX 1966 Longview Junior Service League Annual Invitationals, Longview, TX 1966 Tarrant County Annual, Fort Worth Art Center, Fort Worth, TX ~Gooch Prize winner 1967 Mary Nye Contemporary Art Gallery, Dallas, TX 1967 Longview Junior Service League Annual Invitationals, Longview, TX 1967 Artists West of the Mississippi, Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO 1968 Longview Junior Service League Annual Invitationals, Longview, TX 1968 Cushing Gallery, Dallas, TX 1969 Longview Junior Service League Annual Invitationals, Longview, TX 1970 Longview Junior Service League Annual Invitationals, Longview, TX 1970 Beaumont Annual, Beaumont Museum of Art, Beaumont, TX ~first prize 1971 Longview Junior Service League Annual Invitationals, Longview, TX 1971 Texas Painting and Sculpture: The 20th Century, traveling exhibition: Pollock Galleries, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX); The Witte Memorial Museum (Confluence Museum HemisFair Plaza, San Antonio, TX; The University Museum, University of Texas at Austin, TX; The Amon Carter Museum of Western Art, Fort Worth, TX; and The Museum, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX. 1975 Six American Artists, U.S. Independent Telephone Association, Fairmont, Dallas, TX 1977 Stewart Gallery, Dallas, TX 1995 In the Hands of Man: Man’s Interpretation & Transformation of Nature, City Hall, Dallas, TX ~Canyon Walls 2002 Around the World in Eighty Paintings, Galerie Kornye West, Fort Worth, TX 2003 Silver Pitcher Show, Invitational, Galerie Kornye West, Fort Worth, TX 2004 From Dusk Until Dawn, Invitational, Galerie Kornye West, Fort Worth, TX Selected CollectionsArlington Museum of Art, Arlington, TXArt Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi, TXBlanton Museum of Art, Austin, TXDallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TXFord Motor Company, Dearborn, MIJarvis, Putty and Jarvis, Bryan Tower, Dallas, TX – 25ft mural commission in 1974Memory Tech, Plano, TXMuseum of Fine Arts, Houston, TXSouthern Methodist University, Dallas, TXTexas A&M University Museum, College Station, TXTexas Fine Arts Association (Laguna Gloria Art Museum), Austin, TXThe Frank H. Wardlaw Collection of Texas Art, Texas A&M University Press, College Station, TXUniversity of Texas at Arlington, TXUniversity of Texas, Austin, TX