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 Painter
and draftsman best known for provocative political works.
He's
exhibited at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and the Tweed Museum
in Duluth, MN; Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN; and at
El Museo del Barrio, Lehman College, Wright Gallery, Spring Studio
and L’Acajou in New York City. Over 35 years teaching nationally
and abroad, including the Minnesota Museum of American Art School
and the New York Academy of Art. Most recently he was featured
artist in "Focus on the Figure" at Hopper House in Nyack
NY and his solo, "The Color Flesh", was presented at
The Arts Center in St. Petersburg FL.
He
has held residencies at El Museo del Barrio and at the Universidad
Internacional Menéndez y Pelayo in Santander, Spain, and
was consultant on Latin American art at the Walker Art Center
in Minneapolis MN.
For
twelve years taught Drawing, Color Theory and Pastels at the Parsons
School of Design. He is currently Director of L’Atelier,
which he founded in 1983, conducts Master
Workshops in Figure Painting and Drawing and is webmaster
to www.Atelier-RC.com. He has been featured on Naked New York,
WBAI radio's "Artbreaking" with Charlie Finch and The
New York Press.
Born in Río Piedras, Puerto Rico, in 1945; to New York
in 1971.
An
accomplished draftsman since early childhood, he was apprenticed
to artist Fran Cervoni
in Puerto Rico at the age of twelve. He was befriended and strongly
influenced, both artistically and politically, by Lorenzo
Homar and his graphics.
He
studied drawing under Gary
Faigin in
New York and painting under Francis
Cunningham at the Art Students League, anatomy at the New
York Academy of Figurative Art, and perspective and design at
the Parsons School of Art and Design.
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"...a
modern-day Michelangelo...that good!
[His] art is superb! No more, no less. One can feel that artistic
competence gushing from [his] mind and hand."
- James Leonard-Amodeo, Director/Editor
THE FINE ARTS MAGAZINE
"...a painter of integrity." - JAMES CAMPBELL
"...
body fragments -- a head, a torso -- that intellectualize the body
without dehumanizing it. His gorgeous oils painted on wood panels
do more for skin tone than an Estee Lauder makeover and have a visceral,
baroque richnes."
- Lennie Bennett, ST. PETERSBURG TIMES
"Without any narrative to distract the viewer, like a prizefighter,
his work goes for the jugular… He keeps his cool and uses his
painting skills to let his depictions of the human figure speak for
themselves, clear and precisely defined territory whereby thematic
limitation is a liberation. Akin to the likes of francis Bacon or
Lucian Freud with strong influences from Caravaggio. …a monumental
quality…a sense of drama…"
- Emil Memon, NY ARTS MAGAZINE
"Ferociously
political"
- ART STUDENTS LEAGUE OF N.Y. NEWS
"His
painterly political cartoons...reveal a muralist's lexicon of ingenious
symbolism and a satirist's acid edge"
- Holly Bridges Elliot, ARTS MAGAZINE
"The
clarity of presentation, demonstrated through his painterly, artistic
technique, lends integrity to the message and challenges the viewer
to reckon with its meaning"
- LEHMAN COLLEGE ART GALLERY REVIEW
"Although
not everyone may agree with Coane's political views, the clarity of
his presentation, demonstrated through his painterly, artistic technique,
lends integrity to the message and challenges the viewer to reckon
with its meaning."
- Nellie Escalante, PALANTE CATALOGUE, LEHMAN COLLEGE
"The
most provocative paintings...Coane's powerful, unambiguous pictures
are designed to evoke a visceral response and do so very effectively"
- Mary Abbe, MINNEAPOLIS STAR TRIBUNE
"Sentimental
irony abounds"
- Vivien Raynor, NEW YORK TIMES
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"I
always try to paint like other people and I always end up painting
like myself."- Willem de Kooning
 Recent
work is about form, color and surface detail. Technically Dutch panel
painting, it is firmly rooted in European painting tradition with
an eye to modern sensibilities in color and composition.
Fragmented
figures or objects are rendered against flat, bold, striking backgrounds
and often paired to create startling overall abstract forms.
The lighting is Caravaggio; the high-keyed tropical palette, Gauguin.
Dramatic cropping makes for a unique tension between negative shape
and image.
Suggestive
or narrative titles have been eliminated in favor of a simple nomenclature
used for identification  purposes
only. The frames have been designed and hand crafted by the artist
for emphasis. The gesture remains spontaneous, the color brilliant.
Luminous, compressed, stark, unencumbered, unadorned, the image speaks
for itself.
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Portrait
of the Artist with Donors
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et
every man exercise the art he knows."