Bill Rane: Wikis

Note: Many of our articles have direct quotes from sources you can cite, within the Wikipedia article! This article doesn't yet, but we're working on it! See more info or our list of citable articles.

Bill Rane (William Harve Rane) was born on March 3, 1927, and died on September 2, 2005. He was an American painter, artist, poet, author and philosopher.

Early Life

He was born in Bend, Oregon to a rural, mining, farming and ranching family of very limited means. His family was essentially "Jack Mormon," meaning they were Mormon of unspecific denomination and affiliation or "renegade". He was one of four sons born to his mother, Beatrice, and his father, August. After his birth, his family lived in Garden Valley, Idaho. He was the second youngest of the four boys including his brothers Tom and Richard. He joined the United States Navy at the age of 17 and was aboard a Navy ship in the Atlantic destined for the Battle of Japan when President Harry S. Truman ordered the first battle use of the new atomic bomb in war with the bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. He returned to San Francisco after World War IIand later attended Boise Junior College (now Boise State University) on the GI. He received an A.A. degree from that institution even while it is not clear if this was awarded immediately following his attendance or later as a result of his successful career as an important American painter in Taos, New Mexico, beginning around 1981.

Guatemala, Southern New Mexico and Canada

Bill Rane did not become successful until he settled in Taos, New Mexico. Even as a young man, however, he drew and showed strong inclination to the visual arts. He painted on a houseboat in Sausalito, California. Later, he worked in Guatemala as a political cartoonist, where he created a cartoon strip called "Life in Atlantis". He moved his family from California to Tucson, Arizona; Southern New Mexico; Coapala, Mexico; Toronto, Canada; and Socorro, New Mexico before settling in Taos. He taught at private schools, taught art at a technical college, and generally struggled until he found recognition and acceptance as an American artist in Taos. At the time he first settled in Taos, he was very poor and relatively unknown. Taos, however, embraced him and celebrated his unique personality and art and he found, for the first time in his life, a level of acceptance that brought great growth to his artist expression.

Taos Life

Rane was a contemporary of R. C. Gorman [1308], and Mr. Gorman often referred to Rane as his favorite Taos artist. Beginning with the display of his work at the Gallerie Solari in Taos and then later at Bryan's Gallery on the Taos plaza, Rane presented a series of one-man shows of monumental impact and significance. The shows involved the display of at least twenty new and significant paintings at a time done in oil along with other works such as monotypes. His work, particularly early in his career, centered on oils on canvas, although once he was established in Taos he also worked in other mediums. His moody and reflective painting Taos Window was the basis of his recognition through the Taos Spring Art prize, and was the starting point for a limited edition of prints which were produced by Black Box Collotype of Chicago, Illinois.

Innovative Use of Materials

Earlier in his life, as a struggling artist, Rane painted on masonite, or hard board. He never worked in acrylic but enjoyed using house paints, spray paint in cans, and a myriad of other material in his oil paintings including as he often said, "dog" or "cat" hair which was sometimes incorporated inadvertently in his paintings and which he would leave on the canvas particularly if he liked its affect or the texture or surface it left. He particularly treasured marks left by the wagging of the domestic animal's tail against the fresh oil paint but also enjoyed finding bugs, dust or anything that added to the surface texture.

Intellectual Integrity

Rane displayed an unusually sharp intellect and penetrating power of observation coupled with a genuine humanity and respect for the underdog, particularly the economic or social underdog. And, while wildly liberal, he was no bleeding heart, being more of a classic conservative by personal nature. He instinctively distrusted government and big business out of natural suspicion for those who desired and held power. He left UC Berkeley, where he studied on the GI Bill following World War II, in response to the McCarthy Era requirements for a loyalty oath in writing. He was unwilling to support the Vietnam War and worked against it first as an anti-McCarthy activist in 1968 and later by seeking to keep his sons away from that conflict. He always displayed a unique take on the political events of the day and held a penetrating interest for political events of all kinds. He was a relentless reader and his knowledge was encyclopedic, ranging from ancient history to string theory.

Personal Life

It was while attending Boise Junior College right after his discharge from the US Navy that Rane met his first wife, Carmen Monsanto, his Spanish teacher at the college. A Guatemalan native, her family was prominent politically in her home country. Soon after their marriage the two moved to Guatemala. Together they had three children, Rosa Beatrice, Randolph Jose, and Ivan William Rane. While in Guatemala, Rane worked as a political cartoonist for Guatemala's largest newspaper. Later he returned to California and he and Carmen divorced.

He met his second wife, Judith Johnson, a "potter, weaver, actress, and peace activist,"[1309] during a party at his home in Sausalito, California. They were married only eight days after their first meeting. Together they had five children, Anson Elias, August Jonas, Anna Katherine, Canto Omar, and Aren Sven. Rane was an artist of unusual vision and one of his children has said that he "often looked beyond us but never ignored us." For Bill, family life with his eight children and extended cadre of artists and friends was a very important part of his work and expression. His studio home, which he built by hand with his family and which he vowed to "never finish," located on Taos' southern Blueberry Hill with its vast view of Taos Valley and Taos Mountain, was sometimes called the "Grand Central Station of the Taos Artists' Scene" in those years, the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.

The Paintings

According to the artist's website, Rane "married the classical with the contemporary. His timeless textured canvases are full of myths and glyphs and codices. His unique style encompasses goddesses and geese, pelicans and pomegranates, mythical animals and sea creatures. His range is broad - from the intuit of ancient cave paintings to the embrace of elaborate sea scrolls."[1310]

Rane's power of expression was monumental and the volume of original oil paintings created by him was very large. He sold virtually all of his paintings while he was alive and his collectors spanned the globe but also included many Taos and New Mexico locals. Many individuals who would not generally allocate monies for the purchase of art nonetheless found a way, and a desire, to collect Rane's work. However, his work was not widely collected by museums until after his death. His collectors included astronauts, politicians, physicists, psychologists, waiters, and other artists. After his death his widow, Judith Rane, of Winetka, Illinois and Durango, Colorado continues to operate the Rane Gallery on Ledoux Street in Taos and, while the gallery continues to have some original paintings available, it now sells mostly giclee prints. Currently a large number of these giclees are being shown at the Taos Inn.