Darell Koons, American painter, Died at 91

Darell John Koons was born on December 18, 1924, in Albion, Michigan, and died on June 28, 2016.

He was an American painter.

Darell was for forty years a member of the art faculty at Bob Jones University.

He had earned an undergraduate degree in art from BJU in 1951 and a master of arts degree in art education from Western Michigan University in 1955.

He had more than 45 one-man exhibitions, including exhibitions at University of South Carolina, Wake Forest University, the Mint Museum, Charlotte, NC, Columbus Museum, Columbus, GA, and the Washington County Museum of Art, Hagerstown, MD; and he has participated in at least that many group exhibitions throughout the United States.

His paintings can be found in countless public and private collections including the Gibbes Gallery, Charleston, SC; the Greenville County Museum of Art, Greenville, SC; the South Carolina State Art Collection; the Governor’s Mansion, Columbia, SC; The Mint Museum, Charlotte, NC; Eastern Michigan University; Warren Wilson College, Swannanoa, NC; Central Wesleyan College, Central, SC; the W. Clement Stone Collection, Chicago; and the Indonesian Embassy. Koons’ paintings have been published in Contemporary Artists of South Carolina, Artist/U.S.A., and three editions of Prizewinning Art.

Reportedly, Art critics have called his distinctive style “magic realistic,” because the viewer tends to read into the picture more than actually appears.

His deceptively simple paintings are mostly in watercolor or polymer, give the viewer an impression of extreme detail in old buildings such as barns, cotton gins, and mills.

During a 2010 interview, Darell Koons told a reporter, “Bob Jones, Sr. once said you can’t get the sand out the country boy’s ears, That’s true with me – An artist must know something about his subject or he will surely have difficulty painting it – My experience as a child and youth in rural Michigan has given me knowledge of my subjects, thus the opportunity to record this passing history of Americana.”

Darell Koons passed away at 91 yrs old.