Exhibitions

Program Director (1980 - 1985), Assistant to the Dean (1978 - 1980)

Summer Session Director (1979, 1980, 1982, 1983, 1984)

Faculty Chair (elected by faculty (1981 - 1983)

Board of Governors Representative (1979-1983)

Studio Faculty Member (1979 - 1989)
Worked with Deans, the Board of Governors and the Board of Trustees to organize and

Oversee all aspects of the program at the Studio School, faculty and curriculum develop-

ment, visiting artists and visiting lecturers programs, long and short range planning,

recruitment, exhibitions programs, budget processes, fundraising, etc. Maintained stability,

quality and camaraderie in the program during a highly transitional period of time (5 Deans

and 6 Executive Directors in a 6 year period) in the history of the school.

Taught painting and drawing to beginning through advanced level students.

Organized visiting artists, visiting critics/historians programs (two evenings per week for 7

years). A partial listing of participants includes:

Artists:

Christo & Jeane Claude Vito Acconci Elizabeth Murray

Nam Jun Paik Alice Neel Brice Marden

Alice Neel Brice Marden Christo and Jeanne-Claude

Francesco Clemente Robert Beauchamp Aristomides Kaldis

William Tucker Paul Georges Mary Frank

Lois Dodd Philip Pearlstein Isamu Noguchi

Ross Blechner Lee Krasner John Cage

Pat Passloff Mark di Suvero Robert de Niro

Jane Freilicher Louise Fishman Leon Golub

William Bailey Janet Fish Milton Resnick

Grace Hartigan Red Grooms Isaac Witkin

Ilya Bolotowski Joyce Kozloff Louise Bourgeios

Al Loving Joan Thorne Ray Parker

Altoon Sultan Anne Arnold John Chamberlain

David Reed Susan Rothenberg Lionel Abel

Louis Finkelstein Kenneth Snelson James Brooks

Yvonne Jacquette Benny Andrews Susanna Coffey Irving Petlin Natalie Charkow Charles Cajori

Ronald Bladen Selina Trieff Caroile Robb

Elaine de Kooning Joan Mitchell Julian Schnabel

Christo& Jeanne-Claude Lennart Anderson Sandro Chia
Critics, curators and authors:

John Perreault (critic, Art In America, Art News, Artforum, Village Voice and others)

John Elderfield (Chief Curator, Museum of Modern Art)

Lionel Abel (critic, essayist, novelist)

Leo Steinberg (Historian)

Gert Schiff (Historian, particularly German Art)

Harold Rosenberg (NY Times Critic, originator of the term Abstract Expressionism)

Robert Rosenblum (Historian, frequent contributor to Art News, Artforum, and others)

Theodore Reff (Historian, particularly European Modernism)

Clement Greenberg (critic, author: wrote for all major art publications, NY Times Critic)

Stanley Kunitz (became U.S. Poet Laureate)

Sir Lawrence Gowing (curator, historian, author)

Meyer Shapiro (author, historian, author)

Lawrence Alloway (NY Times Critic, leading critic in establishing premacy of Pop Art)

Natalie Edgar (artist, author, archivist of the American Abstract Expressionist Movement)

Philip Pavia (Founder, 8^th Street Club, close associate of Pollock, deKooning, Kline, etc.)

Morton Feldman (avante garde composer)

Nicholas Calas (Poet, critic, Artforum, Art International, Arts, NY Times)

Janet Abramowicz (author, former assistant to Morandi)

Annette Michelson (founding editor, October magazine)

Dore Ashton (critic, curator, author The New York School)

Kenneth Koch (Poet, contemporary of Frank O’Hara and John Ashbery)

John Ashberry (Poet, NY Times Critic)

Michael Brenson (NY Times Critic)

Jack Flam (Historian, author Matisse on Art and numerous others)

Arthur Danto (Philosopher, author, critic for The Nation)

and many others
EDUCATION:
1972 Universidad Ibero Americana, Mexico City, Art & Art History.

1971-195 Westminster College, Pennsylvania, BA, Studio Art and Art Education major.

1975 Corcoran Gallery of American Art, Washington, D.C., 1975. Internship.

1975-77 University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 1975-77. Graduate Studies in Painting, Printmaking, Art History, Philosophy, Art Education.

1977-1979 New York Studio School, New York City, Painting, Drawing, Sculpture.

1978-1980 City University of New York, Brooklyn College, M.F.A.

Studied with: Peter Agostini Wayne Thiebaud Philip Pearlstein Lennart Anderson

Sidney Geist Leland Bell Esteban Vicente Elaine de Kooning

George McNeil Nicholas Carone Mercedes Matter Gretna Campbell

Alice Neel Lois Dodd Dore Ashton Philip Guston & others

EXCERPTS FROM PREVIOUS LETTERS OF SUPPORT:
I consider him to be one of the top four or five people in this field in the country. . .One of the most amazing things about him is his ability to maintain an active life as an artist while forming and building successful art programs. I watched him take Chautauqua from a very ordinary art program to a highly visible summer school for the arts, and shape American University in the space of a few years into one of the top graduate programs in the country. He has a vision for what will attract and sustain students as well as what will nurture faculty. He is able to bring the best teachers and critics to his programs. He is unafraid to take risks and make big moves…Professor Kimes has the reputation of working exceptionally well with a faculty and maintaining the respect and support of those who work with him, even while he is making changes. He strikes me as the sort of person who deals with issues in a relaxed and open manner, is not flustered by conflict and genuinely listens and supports the needs of students and faculty alike.
Esme’ Thompson, Chair, Studio Art

Dartmouth College

Kimes is a distinguished teacher. . . I have been aware of his teaching at the New York Studio

School, at Chautauqua Institution and at the American University. In the case of all these institutions, Kimes has made a distinct and powerful contribution, doing much to further their

reputations in the field. If the program at American University is now looked upon as one of the

most serious, demanding and lively art departments – which it is – Kimes is in a large part

responsible. His role in developing the program is fully recognized by other institutions... The

combination of active professional painter, distinguished teacher and talented and wise

academic administrator is extremely rare. Any faculty would look on such as a great asset.
Andrew Forge, Dean

Yale University School of Art

As former chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, as in many ways its developer and founder, I have known a variety of artists of excellence both in the United States and abroad during these past thirty years. Don Kimes holds a special place in my thoughts and regard. We have discussed often the values of the arts to our nation. We have shared together visions for a brighter future for cultural progress. Unfailingly I have found his views so well articulated and deeply thoughtful. They have helped me in my work as an advocate for the best the arts can provide. I have admired greatly his skills as a painter and I have had the opportunity to witness his skill in teaching others, as well as his ability to bring together a meeting of minds with a shared sense of purpose and resolve. . .At one time in my life . . .I sought a faculty talented both as teachers and artists. I am convinced Don has that rare combination in the highest degree. It will be of substantial benefit to the University — especially when one considers that he is also a gifted spokesperson for the arts in education, and more broadly in the whole of our society.
Livingston Biddle, Founding Chair

National Endowment for the Arts

Mr. Kimes is one of the most experienced and skillful Visual Arts Program Directors in this country. He is an innovative and imaginative planner. . .The panels that he has organized and upon which he has participated, and the visiting artists that he has brought to American University are notable for their inclusiveness.

John Moore, Chair of Visual Arts

University of Pennsylvania

In my view, he ranks as one of the most able teachers and administrators that I know in my long experience as an artist and educator. He is also an artist whose work I hold in very high regard... Don Kimes must be one of the most able leaders and innovative administrators around, judging from my own experience in having worked with many department chairs and deans/ His skills are known to me first had in the remarkable program in art that he has established at Chautauqua. . .An artist and thinker of his stature, possessed of such energy and drive in teaching and organization is a rare find!
David Lund

Professor of Art, Columbia University

. . . he is a gifted painter who willingly engages the larger issues that center on the questions we

hold for our existence. I know that this opinion is shared by many other painters who also are

exacting in their expectations and judgment. . .I have heard very positive things about the

intensity and dedication he brings to this courses from his fellow faculty members and

colleagues. . .In his person he seems to have unlimited energy. It is apparent that this energy has not only benefited his painting, exhibition record and teaching, but is also evident in the time

devoted to the oversight of the successful programs he has directed. The Chautauqua Institution

School of Art is a case in point. Over time he has made this into one of the best summer

programs in the country. It rivals Yale’s Norfolk program and also what occurs at the

Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine. . .you are fortunate to have him. As a

result of his association with notable artists and the respect they have for him he has brought a

renewed vitality to an excellent department.
Ben Frank Moss

Chair, Department of Studio Art

Dartmouth College

He is at once intensely exuberant, outgoing , and ambitious, and yet at times, self-effacing in a

way that allows his students to more fully discover and express themselves. His frankness,

accessibility, and broad sense of humor catalyzed the terrific camaraderie among graduate

students when I was at American University. Don also continually brings a wealth of resources,

visiting artists, and challenging ideas to the student community . . .He fosters an unusual level of

communication between students and visiting artists and provides invaluable resources and

connections for them to draw upon. . .he continually seeks to create new learning opportunities

that will benefit students at all levels of experience. Given his extensive accomplishments, it is

remarkable that Don remains so accessible, affable, and unpretentious, and so obviously

committed to his own artistic growth as well as that of his students.
Andrea Packard

Former student

Director, List Gallery, Swarthmore Col.

He converted an inconsequential summer art program at Chautauqua into a serious summer studio experience where students have contact with a range and caliber of professional artists rarely available to them in any single college. Their learning is intensive and highly personalized which makes administration of the program no easy task. Prof. Kimes has managed to create a comfortable working environment where students and faculty can both be highly productive and interactive in the most appropriate and fruitful manner possible. He is an articulate spokesman for the arts in that community. . .Prof. Kimes is undoubtedly, in my estimation, worthy of comparison to the best professionals in our field. He is remarkably diverse in his abilities as teacher and administrator, is likewise exemplary in his development as and artist and his development of opportunities for student artists. His professional relationships reflect long experience among some of the most notable critics and teachers of our generation. His enormous investment of time and energy in his professional activities is truly meritorious. . .



Susana Viola Jacobson

Painting faculty

University of Pennsylvania

A generation younger than Johns, Rauschenberg and Stella, Kimes followed their lead in finding fresh inspiration for painting in printmaking techniques. In Kimes case, however, this meant using automatic procedures to “provoke” form as opposed to imposing static compositions related to graphic imagery. The result is a tension between chance and control, accident and discipline that give his new works, whether large or small, an inherent drama. Kimes determination to remain faithful to the ambitious notions of content to which Abstract Expressionism (which was never really abstract or expressionistic) aspired is both rare and courageous for an artist of his generation . . . in the context of the goal that painting sets for itself today, an artist like Don Kimes exhibits an exemplary tenacity and courage in confronting the limitations as well as the potential of the pictorial.
Barbara Rose, Senior and/or contributing editor Art News, Art in America, Artforum, Partisan Review and others. Author American Art Since 1900
I have watched him work in an adjacent studio day and night. . .Living and working in close proximity . . . has offered me the opportunity to know Don Kimes as a colleague and as a director. He is a generous teacher, sincerely inquisitive and open. His teaching is a balance of flexibility and structure. Most importantly, his students’ passions are sparked by his own. Don is a fair and even handed person to work for. He is playful. He is skilled at keeping perspective in the varied complications that can arise out of a group of artists working together. He has a vision for what works and I greatly respect his drive in insisting on quality as an artist and an educator.

Judy Glantzman

Artist (Represented by Betty Cunningham Gallery, NYC)

Faculty AICAD New York program

In 1994 Don Kimes, who had developed the Chautauqua School of Art in the late 1980’s,

and was himself a former Program Director at the Studio School, took a sabbatical from

American University, and with his family, came to live in Rose’s house for a year. He fell
in love with the Umbrian landscape, and together with Rose, conceived of creating a new

program in Italy ... A unique relationship has developed between the artists, the

community, and his school as Corciano has increasingly become a nexus for artists in the

region… Not only are the students living with art history in a way that is impossible in

America, as well as working every day in their studios, they also become ambassadors

representing the importance of communication, public activity, and the responsibility of what this life choice entails. The program serves as more than an art school, but

also as a locus which connects students to artists, to the world of art, and to a context for

their art. They return to the United States with altered perceptions about what can be

achieved with expanded boundaries. They have worked with important contemporary

artists, but have also stood before Caravaggio and Piero Della Francesca with a genuine

awareness of the context of the art…Don Kimes, the director of the school, feels that

especially “In the age of information, making art requires a greater leap of faith than it did

for Piero or Giotto. There isn’t any immortality, but we want it anyway, and Italy is a great

place to think about space, immortality, and the passage of time. You cannot pick up a

stone that hasn’t already been touched by a dozen human hands.”