{{Short description|Canadian artist (1932–2013)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2022}} {{Infobox person | name = Don Reichert | honorific_suffix = {{Post-nominals|country=CAN|RCA|size=100%}} | image = | image_size = | alt = | caption = | birth_name = Don Karl Reichert | birth_date = {{birth date|1932|01|11}} | birth_place = Libau, Manitoba, Canada | death_date = {{death date and age|2013|09|08|1932|01|11|mf=y}} | death_place = | nationality = | spouse = | education = | awards = | known_for = Painter, photographer, digital media artist | website = https://donreichert.ca }}
'''Don Karl Reichert''' {{Post-nominals|country=CAN|RCA}} (11 January 1932 – 8 September 2013)<ref name=obituary >{{cite news|title=DONALD REICHERT|url=http://passages.winnipegfreepress.com/passage-details/id-205939/name-Donald_Reichert/|accessdate=5 October 2013|newspaper=Winnipeg Free Press|date=14 September 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131006222508/http://passages.winnipegfreepress.com/passage-details/id-205939/name-Donald_Reichert/|archive-date=6 October 2013|url-status=live}}</ref> was a Canadian artist. While primarily a painter in the abstract expressionist tradition, he was also notable for his work as a photographer and in digital media.
==Career== Donald Reichert was born in Libau, Manitoba in 1932 to parents who had immigrated from Austria. He studied art in Canada, Mexico, and England and then from 1964 taught at the University of Manitoba.<ref name="bio " >{{cite web |title=Biography |url=https://cowleyabbott.ca/artist/don_reichert |website=cowleyabbott.ca |publisher=Estate of artist |access-date=30 January 2024}}</ref> As a young man, he was praised by the critic Clement Greenberg on a visit in 1963 who said he had the most possibilities of the artists Greenberg had seen in Winnipeg.<ref name="bovey " >{{cite book |last1=Bovey |first1=Patricia E. |title=Western Voices in Canadian Art |date=2023 |publisher=U of Manitoba Press|page=246, pl. 5.16|location=Winnipeg|url=https://library.gallery.ca/search~S1?/abovey%2C+pat/abovey+pat/1%2C1%2C24%2CB/frameset&FF=abovey+patricia+e&24%2C%2C24 |access-date=30 January 2024}}</ref>
Reichert's early work often combined the elegant brush-strokes of abstract expressionist painting with the techniques of color field composition. Other significant strands of his work, center on black-and-white paintings resembling Asian calligraphy, or on the use of Latin American imagery, particularly pre-contact Mayan skull motifs<ref name="bio " /> derived from various Latin American ruins. He was perhaps best known, though, for large canvases painted out of doors. While abstract, these are reflective of the landscapes around him such as the forests and lakes of the Canadian Shield. His technique was unusual: canvasses are laid on the uneven ground, and the impression of the earth beneath is subtly incorporated into the work.
His multimedia works included photographs that had been painted over, often with elegant splattering or dripping in the style of Jackson Pollock. He also created works that incorporate photographs into paintings. As Reichert was an accomplished pilot, many of these were aerial photographs: a continuation of his ongoing interest in landscape.
He worked closely with internationally acclaimed ceramic artist Robert Archambeau, both of whom operated studios in the remote Canadian town of Bissett, Manitoba.
Reichert had a retrospective at the Winnipeg Art Gallery in 1992.<ref name="bio " /> He was a founding member and affiliated with the arts magazine ''Border Crossings''. In 2013 Reichert was made a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts.<ref name=RCA1880 >{{cite web|title=Members since 1880 |url=http://www.rca-arc.ca/en/about_members/since1880.asp |publisher=Royal Canadian Academy of Arts |accessdate=11 September 2013 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110526215339/http://www.rca-arc.ca/en/about_members/since1880.asp |archivedate=26 May 2011 }}</ref>
== Selected public collections == Reichert produced work which is in many notable collections, including the National Gallery of Canada,<ref>{{cite web |title=Collection |url=https://www.gallery.ca/collection/artist/don-reichert |website=www.gallery.ca |publisher=National Gallery of Canada |access-date=30 January 2024}}</ref> the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Montreal Museum of Fine Art, the Winnipeg Art Gallery<ref>{{cite web |title=Collection |url=https://www.wag.ca/art/collections/search/?search_type=advanced&collection=&title=&artist=don+reichert&medium=&type=&country=&accession=&date= |website=www.wag.ca |publisher=Winnipeg Art Gallery |access-date=30 January 2024}}</ref> and the Canada Council Art Bank.<ref>{{cite web |title=Catalogue |url=https://umanitoba.ca/schools/art/media/gallery_1983_ReichertArchambeau.pdf |website=umanitoba.ca |publisher=U Manitoba, 1983 |access-date=30 January 2024}}</ref>
==See also== *Aerial photography *Aerial landscape art
==Notes== {{reflist}}
== References == * Walsh, Meeka (ed.). ''Don Reichert: A Life in Work.'' Winnipeg, Manitoba: Winnipeg Art Gallery, 1995.
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Reichert, Don}} Category:1932 births Category:2013 deaths Category:20th-century Canadian painters Category:Canadian male painters Category:21st-century Canadian painters Category:Canadian photographers Category:Artists from Manitoba Category:Members of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts Category:20th-century Canadian male artists Category:21st-century Canadian male artists