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Cynthia Daignault

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Cynthia Daignault
Born1978 (age 45–46)
Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.
EducationStanford University
Occupation(s)artist, writer, curator, musician
Known forpainting
Websitecynthiadaignault.com

Cynthia Daignault (born 1978) is an American painter. Her work is often described as rigorous and intense.[1][2] Daignault is also a writer[3] and musician[4] and curator.[5] She lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.

Biography

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Daignault was born and grew up in Baltimore, Maryland.[6][7] She attended Stanford University and graduated with distinctions and honors and a BA degree in 2001.[8] Instead of pursuing an MFA degree, as many modern American painters often do, Daignault chose to work with established artists, including Kara Walker,[9] in more traditional models of mentorship.[1]

Art

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Daignault's process of painting relies less on exact visual realism, than on ideas and feelings.[1] She works with light and time and strives towards a sense of the universal. She feels that painted objects are like "concrete word poetry"[1] and she has been called "a poet of a painter" by the New Yorker.[10] Often her works exist in the divide between abstraction and figuration.[11]

Daignault's paintings are often installed in series. The work, I love you more than one more day (2013) consists of 365 small oil canvases.[12] This piece was described as lyrical and existing on the "verge of transcendence."[13]

Daignault took a few years to paint alone in the woods.[14] She has said that the experience strengthened her resolve as an artist and that painting is her "life's practice."[1]

Daignault’s “Light Atlas,” 2016, consists of 360 small paintings documenting the perimeter of the continental United States. The work was inspired by the artist’s realization that she could name 100 men who roamed the country to create canonical works that have defined America, yet she could not name one such woman. Traversing more than 30,000 miles, across forests, deserts, mountains, and fields, Daignault traveled the road for a year. She stopped every twenty-seven miles to sketch and photograph the landscape. This work is an immersive, room-size work that is exhibited at the Hudson River Museum till Fall 2021.[15]

In November 2020, the Dallas Art Fair Foundation has announced it has gifted two artworks from the Dallas Art Fair's Four x Five exhibition to two major Dallas museums. One of them was Daignault's painting, Elegy (Los Angeles, 2019) acquired by the Dallas Museum of Art (DMA)for its permanent collection.[16]

Books

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Daignault is also a published art writer and editor, including the monograph "Improbable History" about painter Sean Landers published by JRP|Ringier in the Fall of 2011,[17] and the founder and editor of the publication A-Z.

In 2019, the book referencing her work Light Atlas was published.[18]

Awards

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d e Valli, Marc; Dessanay, Margherita (2014). A Brush with the Real: Figurative Painting Today. London: Laurence King Publishing Ltd. pp. 5, 142–147. ISBN 9781780672830.
  2. ^ Spence, Rachel (11 October 2012). "Taste for the Anti-Frieze". Financial Times. Retrieved 12 March 2015.
  3. ^ Ha, Paul, Cynthia Daignault and Michelle Reyes Landers, eds. Sean Landers: 1990–1995, Improbable History. Zürich: JRP|Ringier Kunstverlag AG, Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, 2011.
  4. ^ Johnson, Ken. "An Ode to a Borough's Creativity". The New York Times.
  5. ^ Istomina, Tatiana (26 July 2014). "Eric's Trip at Lisa Cooley's Gallery". Arte Fuse Magazine. Archived from the original on 2 August 2014. Retrieved 12 March 2015.
  6. ^ "Artist of the Week: Cynthia Daignault". LVL3 Media. 6 February 2014. Retrieved 12 March 2015.
  7. ^ "Cynthia Daignault". Lisa Cooley Gallery. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 12 March 2015.
  8. ^ a b c "Cynthia Daignault". The Modern. Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. 2014-03-18. Archived from the original on 2020-09-29. Retrieved 2021-12-30.
  9. ^ Rosenberg, Karen (14 June 2014). "The Antidote to Sweet".
  10. ^ "Goings on About Town" (PDF). The New Yorker. 20 September 2013. p. 8. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 25 March 2015.
  11. ^ Wilson, Michael (21 September 2011). "White Columns". Artforum International. 50 (2): 317. ISSN 1086-7058.
  12. ^ Yerman, Marcia (31 October 2014). "Crossing Brooklyn: Art From Bushwick, Bed-Stuy, and Beyond". Huffington Post. Retrieved 12 March 2015.
  13. ^ Halle, Howard (9 September 2013). "Time Out New York" (PDF). The New Yorker. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 12 March 2015.
  14. ^ Donnelly, Kate. "From Your Desks". From Your Desks. Retrieved 10 September 2014.
  15. ^ "Light Atlas at the Hudson River Museum". HRM.or.
  16. ^ "Daignault' work acquired by the Dallas Museum of Art".
  17. ^ Ha, Paul, Cynthia Daignault and Michelle Reyes Landers, eds. Sean Landers: 1990–1995, Improbable History. Zürich: JRP|Ringier Kunstverlag AG, Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, 2011. ISBN 9783037641781
  18. ^ "Daignault Light Atlas".
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