Anthony Conway

Anthony Conway
File:My Father's Jacket (Self-portrait) Updated.jpgMy Father's Jacket (Self-portrait) Updated.jpg My Father's Jacket (Self-portrait) Updated.jpg My Father's Jacket (Self Portrait)
Born	(1961-09-29)September 29, 1961 Long Island, New York
🏳️ Nationality	American
🏫 Education	Parsons School of Design Art Students League Medical College of Georgia
💼 Occupation
Known for	Painting, Pastels, Drawing
Notable work	A Declaration of Interdependence (c. 1991) Chukkers (c. 2001) Trident (c. 2011)
Movement	Classical Realism

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Anthony Conway (born September 29, 1961) is an American realist painter, known for his figurative works on sports subjects, and his contemporary vision of American life. Conway has been compared to Thomas Eakins, in part because he embraced classical realist techniques and favored similar subjects. He is regarded as one of the early initiators of the contemporary classical art revival, although he rejects the stringent exactitude in depicting subjects adopted by many of his contemporaries.

He is known for his use of color, the diversity of his mediums, draftsmanship, Modernist sense of space, and his interpretations on modern life.

Early life

The artist (2nd from Lt.), age 7, with his brothers in front of childhood home.

Conway was born in Long Island, New York, the third of four sons of Eileen and Thomas Conway. His family moved to the suburb of Levittown, and later to the South Shore town of Massapequa.}

Conway had a passion for art early in life, and started copying reproductions in books on the Old Masters works that he admired, especially, the artists of the Italian Renaissance. In grade school he demonstrated his talent in drawing, and his parents encouraged his artistic tendencies with private lessons, art supplies, and a small studio in the corner of his bedroom. Conway attended St. Agnes Cathedral High School in Rockville Centre, Long Island, and New York State's Governor's School for the Arts in New York. He attended courses a local college while still in high school. His first summer job in high school was in his neighbor's sign business.

Education

Parsons School of Design

Art Students League

In 1980 Conway began his college education at Parsons School of Design in New York City, where he became friends with Leonardo Drew.

In the early 80s, the Neo-expressionism art movement was becoming popular, as were painters such as Julian Schnabel, Robert Longo, David Salle, Eric Fischl, and Jean-Michel Basquiat. However, Conway believed that the neo-expressionists lacked skill and craftsmanship, and that the movement would fail.

While Parsons provided excellent instruction in the commercial arts, Conway was frustrated with the lack of instruction in painting techniques, and his friend Leonardo directed him to the Art Students League. It was at the League that he was mentored by artist David Leffel.

While in college, Conway made his living as a freelance artist and working as a host in a French restaurant on Fifth Avenue next to St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

Medical school

Conway wanted to study human anatomy first-hand and in-depth from the cadaver, and he earned entrance into the Medical College of Georgia in 1985. Like Thomas Eakins before him, Conway attended courses in anatomy and dissection alongside of medical students. He completed his Master's of Science Degree in Medical illustration in 1989.

Artistic career

Sports paintings

Painting of relay race from 1996 Paralympic Games, Triumph, acrylic on paper, 6" x 12", by Anthony Conway

While taking a break from working on his Master’s Thesis in Graduate school, Conway encountered the sport of rowing on the Savannah River. Inspired, he created several rowing scenes; including A Declaration of Interdependence.

His sports paintings drew rapid attention, and within a few years Conway was working with top professional athletes and teams, fortune 500 companies, the Centennial Olympic and Paralympic Games and drawing royalty and celebrities alike. In August 2001, Conway returned to New York for a one-man show of his paintings on sports themes.

Flag paintings

Fall Harvest, oil on panel, 8" x 10" by Anthony Conway (Private Collection). An en plein air painting from Conway's Flag Series

After the events of September 11, 2001, Conway stopped painting sports scenes. In the first few years after 9/11, Conway changed course, and began to express through his art his personal feelings on the modern day American experience. Inspired by his fellow Americans, Conway began to develop the idea for a series of paintings, and by mid-2000, he became absorbed in creating the flag paintings, which have the American flag as a common element in each work.

Rather than making overt patriotic statements in the flag paintings, Conway gave the works a distinctly American character in which he tackled the contradictions within the modern American culture, gave homage to America's past, and provided hints of what may be in America's future. As the War on Terror expanded, Conway’s son-in-law was deployed to Afghanistan. The differing emotions and contexts that Conway expresses in his flag paintings have demonstrated a historical portrait of America post-9/11.

Artistic style

Equine painting Chukkers, Oil on canvas, 16" x 20", by Anthony Conway (Private Collection) Painting selected as one of 15 international artists for the survey exhibition Realism 2002.

Conway is often identified with the classical realist revival in the contemporary art world; however, this is an inadequate classification of Conway's art. While Conway's style reflects his respect of the Old Masters, he is constantly pushing new boundaries and experimenting in his art. Conway is willing to employ Modernists techniques and aesthetics, seen in paintings like Trident, one of his most notable flag paintings. Inspired by the abstract expressionism of Robert Rauschenberg's "Combines", Conway has taken painting from a two dimensional object to the third dimension with found objects, thus bridging sculptural and painterly elements. Conway then takes the painting a step further to a fourth dimension, by adding smell and sound. For authentic effect, Conway layers his paintings, often breaking pastel dust into the paint, using an acrylic wash, or by adding transparent glazes. Adding oils or subtle metallics to these layers creates a living texture to the work.

References

• Jenkins, Vance (March 2004). "Anthony Conway:The Thinker's Painter". South Carolina Magazine. The Arts: 65. By painting a tremendous range of subjects, Conway's intent is to speak universal truths about the human condition that resonates with the viewer in personal ways. "It's really about the work," he says. "My personal intentions don't matter. In the end, I'm just a painter trying to paint from my experiences and observations—putting it all out there for people to decide for themselves what the work means and how the work feels.
• Smith, Michael B. (October 31, 1991). "With Anthony Conway: The Art's the Thing". EDGE Magazine. Artists Deserving Wider Recognition. 1 (13): 7. After graduating from college, Anthony made Greenville his home. "For me, Greenville is the ideal place to live and work," says Conway. "Few distractions, easy access to larger cities, with an ever changing wealth of cultural activities to educate and inspire me.
• Aiken, Heidi (April 30, 1995). "The Fine Art of Cycling". Tour DuPont Supplement: The Greenville News. p. 5. An artist of the '90s, Conway lives and works quietly out of his home-based studio in Greenville.
• Gauthier, Leigh (July 5, 2002). "Local Painter Selected for International Exhibition; Respected Realist artist commends Greenville art community". The Greenville Journal. Community. 4 (28): A6. Anthony Conway splits his time between New York, Connecticut, the Hamptons and Greenville, but he says he calls Greenville his home. And while those other cities may be more well known as strongholds for the arts, he says Greenville was the ideal place for him to develop as an artist—and he plans to keep returning here as his burgeoning career will allow him.
• Jenkins, Vance (March 2004). "Anthony Conway:The Thinker's Painter". South Carolina Magazine: 64. There are so many distractions in New York that it can be difficult to give yourself the quiet time necessary to work," says Conway. "By contrast, the people of Greenville remind me of an America that used to be. And although there is a small town feel, we have tremendous cultural offerings here that equal those of many larger cities in both size and quality; Greenville is the ideal place for my creativity and work.
• Lew, Irvina (2001). Anthony Conway: American Sport. Essay. p. 2. Search this book on
• Gauthier, Leigh (July 5, 2002). "Local painter Selected for International Exhibition: Respected Realist artist commends Greenville art community". The Greenville Journal. Community. 4 (28): A7. Abstraction and conceptualism dominated the 20th-century art world, but realism held its place, and there is a major shift back to realistic painting, " Conway says. "It was all about the concept, but people are pushing for the craft again.
• Hassold, Kim (December 2006). "Anthony Conway:The Flag Series". TALK Magazine. TALK Art: The Greenville News, A Gannett Co.: 39. To bring craftsmanship back to contemporary art, I reference the techniques of the past, but think in the future related to the subject, composition and look of the image to define this moment in time.

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