“ROBERT DURAN”: A new exhibition on view October 19 through March 16 at the New Jersey State Museum in Trenton offers visitors the opportunity to trace the arc of artist Robert Duran’s evolutions and experiments in painting, drawing, and watercolor from about 1967 to the late 1990s.

The New Jersey State Museum will present a new exhibition and accompanying publication featuring the work of an artist who spent the latter part of his life working in New Jersey. “Robert Duran,” opening October 19, offers visitors the opportunity to trace the arc of Duran’s evolutions and experiments in painting, drawing, and watercolor from roughly 1967 to the late 1990s. The exhibition will be on view in the first floor gallery through March 16, 2025. Major support for this exhibition and the accompanying publication has been provided by Karma Gallery. Additional support has been provided by the New Jersey State Museum Foundation through the Lucille M. Paris Fund and the Martha Vaughn Fund.

Born in Salinas, Calif., to a Filipino father and Shawnee mother, Robert Duran (1938–2005) arrived in New York in the early 1960s via San Francisco, where he soon became part of the artistic milieu associated with Bykert Gallery. Originally a sculptor, Duran and his approach to painting offer an alternative to both the hard-edge geometric abstraction and minimalism that dominated much of the ’60s and’70s in New York. Duran’s acrylic wash surfaces and “color shapes,” as critic Carter Ratcliff called them, at times resemble petroglyphs, and at others take on cartographic or even geological qualities.

Despite a critically successful career in the New York art world, around 1980 Duran moved with his family to Hillsdale, where he privately continued to develop his painting style. Much of what is known about Duran is limited to exhibition history and anecdotes from friends, family, and acquaintances who can only begin to flesh out certain contours of the artist’s life, often leaving more questions than answers.

Sarah B. Vogelman, the New Jersey State Museum’s acting curator of fine art, became aware of Duran and his artwork while researching lesser known New Jersey artists. “I was immediately drawn to Duran’s unique sensibility when it comes to form and color. His experimental and playful approach to both acrylic paint and watercolor set him apart from contemporaries of his era, and still feels fresh in today’s landscape,” Vogelman said. “He was part of an artistic community that included some of the most important American artists of the 20th-century, and based on the quality of the work alone, Duran deserves be to part of that art history, too.”

The exhibition seeks to reintroduce this artist to the public primarily through the most significant record of his life available to viewers: his paintings and works on paper.

Located at 205 West State Street in Trenton, the New Jersey State Museum is open Tuesday through Sunday, 9 a.m. to 4:45 p.m.; closed on all state holidays. General admission is free. For more information visit statemuseum.nj.gov.