Abstract Expressionist Color Block Painting Mod Architect Irving Haynes RISD

Dimensions: H: 18.0, W: 24.0 IN

Irving B Haynes FAIA (1927 – 2005)

Painting on heavy paper Hand initialed recto and hand signed and dated verso

Irving B Haynes FAIA (1927 – 2005) was an American architect and preservationist. He practiced architectural design in Pawtucket and Providence, Rhode Island from 1961 to 1994 and taught at the Rhode Island School of Design from 1973 to 2005. Irving Bogle Haynes was born on January 14, 1927, in Waterville, Maine. He was educated at Colby College before transferring to the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), graduating with a BFA in 1951 and a BS in architecture in 1954. He worked for architects Robinson, Green & Beretta from 1954 to 1957 and for Harkness & Geddes from 1957 to 1958 before joining the Pawtucket firm of Monahan, Meikle & Johnson. After the retirements of Monahan and Meikle, in 1961 Haynes became a partner in the reorganized Johnson & Haynes. When Johnson retired from practice in 1968 Haynes succeeded to the business, and moved it to Providence in 1970. The business was reorganized as Irving B. Haynes & Associates in 1978 with the addition of Cornelis de Boer, and as Haynes/de Boer Associates in 1994 when Haynes retired from practice. A former professor at the prestigious Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), Haynes was a true renaissance man: war veteran, architect, talented athlete, photographer and jazz pianist. He then went on to have a distinguished career as a painter and architect for nearly half a century. Painting, however, was Haynes’ true passion. A confirmed “modernist", he utilized a variety of media on paper -- crayon, wax, watercolor, oil painting and acrylic -- to manipulate light, texture, shape and line. He was especially renowned for his skillful use of color. They have a densequilt like color field, cubist feel to them. His friend and colleague at RISD, Thomas Lyon Mills, told the Brown Daily Herald, “Irving admired other painters whose idealistic search for precision often was a difficult one...He loved Paul Cezanne...Cezanne’s color and rock-solid compositions that were at once flat and spatial.”

In 2005, just a few months after his death, RISD’s Industrial Design Department Gallery hosted an exhibition of his most recent works called “Irving B. Haynes: Paintings, 2001-2005”. In 2009 the Newport Art Museum held another retrospective titled "Irving B. Haynes, Abstractions: 1960-2005". Examples of his work are in the permanent collections of the Newport Art Museum and the RISD Art Museum. Haynes became known both as an architect and preservationist early in his career. In the 1960s he was responsible for some of the most outstanding new works in urban renewal areas in Pawtucket and Providence and was responsible for the reconstruction and restoration of the First Unitarian Church of Providence following a devastating fire. Later he restored Providence City Hall and the Westminster Arcade and in 1981, along with William D. Warner and Friedrich St. Florian, Haynes devised the original scheme for Waterplace Park, later executed by Warner. Haynes joined the American Institute of Architects in 1962 and was elected a Fellow in 1982.

In 1973 Haynes joined the RISD faculty, teaching foundation studies. In 1980 he was promoted to assistant professor and after his retirement from practice focused on his teaching. He became a full professor in 1997 and retired in 2005, shortly before his death. RISD is one of the great art campuses and has produced

Famous Artists and Designers such as Shepard Fairey, Kara Walker, Jenny Holzer, Dale Chihuly, Do-Ho Suh , Tavares Strachan and Rose B. Simpson. Notable Faculty have include Diane Arbus, Jennifer Packer and Richard Merkin. By 1960, painting was a large part of Haynes' life, and would remain so until his death. He was inspired primarily by contemporary European avant garde art movements such as Cubism, Dada and Concrete Poetry. After his death his work was exhibited at the Rhode Island School of Design Museum and the Newport Art Museum, and several of his paintings are in the collection of the former.