Don Nice - Tropical Punch
American, b.1932
Tropical Punch, 1994
Lithograph, 29 x 45 inches
Edition 42/50
Landfall Press
04.018

Alumni Gift

A native of California and a resident of New York, Nice is a painter and printmaker. He is most often inspired by nature, which is most likely a product of his background. His father, a citrus farmer, put him to work as a ranch hand and mule packer in his youth. He emerged on the art scene in the 1960’s as part of the “new perceptual realists,” who wanted to put content back into painting. He is known for his realistic representation of commercial objects in conjunction with nature. Later in his career he achieved this by placing his paintings of nature on aluminum.

Early in his career, Nice concentrated on portraying a single object on a plain field. He used simple everyday objects. He then pushed his art further to create the concept of the totem, a group of separate yet related objects. These groups of images created a single picture and combined meaningful representations to tell a story.