Nathan Oliveira: A Memorial Exhibition
September 8 - October 22, 2011Statement
John Berggruen Gallery is pleased to present Nathan Oliveira: A Memorial Exhibition, an exhibition of his last paintings, most completed in 2010, as well as historical drawings, sculpture, and monotypes. The exhibition will occupy both floors of gallery space. The exhibition is accompanied by an illustrated catalogue with an introduction by art historian and Director of the Palm Springs Art Museum and former Associate Director and Chief Curator of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Dr. Steven A. Nash. There will be an opening reception on Thursday, September 8th from 5:30-7:30pm to coordinate with the San Francisco Art Dealer’s Association’s First Thursdays.
In the months before his death on November 13, 2010, Nathan Oliveira (b.1928) experienced a powerful explosion of creativity. His thirteen final paintings that are included in this exhibition represent a profound and moving chapter to Oliveira’s distinguished career as a painter. The paintings consist of magnificent figures standing in, or gliding through, luminous landscape-like swaths of paint. They are majestic and mysterious, and seem to have their roots in Oliveira’s early work, yet they speak of a fresh vision as well. This exhibition serves as a condensed survey that also includes early and historical works on paper, sculpture, and monotypes.
Oliveira’s various artistic forms that define his oeuvre all take the human figure as their subject matter and showcase Oliveira’s celebrated predilection for depicting bodies in various states of movement. Unconstrained by medium, Oliveira has continuously created solitary forms which captivate us with their rich earth colors, deeply textured yet balanced compositions, and vibrant spirituality. “Nathan Oliveira’s passion is for continuing an inner-directed artistic tradition attached to the human subject… The evocation of mystery that the viewer experiences in Oliveira’s work derives from a depth of feeling refracted through artistic tradition and transmitted to the spectator by the artist’s hand,” wrote Peter Selz in a catalog essay for Oliveira’s 2002 painting and printmaking retrospective at the San Jose Museum of Art, California.
Nathan Oliveira was born in Oakland, California, and received his bachelor's degree in fine arts in 1951 and his master's in fine arts in 1952 at the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland (later the California College of the Arts.) In 1959, Oliveira was the youngest painter included in the important exhibition “New Images of Man” at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. A survey of five years of his paintings and works on paper was shown at the Art Gallery of the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1963. He began teaching at Stanford University in 1964 and proceeded to build the printmaking department until his retirement in 1995. A fifteen-year survey of his paintings was organized by the Oakland Museum of California in 1973. A retrospective of his graphic works was mounted in 1980 at California State University, Long Beach, and the California Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco organized a survey of his work in monotype in 1997. Oliveira was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1994 and has received many other awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, two honorary doctorates, and, in 2000, received the degree of Commander of the Order of Henry the Navigator from the President of Portugal - considered the highest decoration among modern Portuguese honorific orders. In 2002, the San Jose Museum of Art organized a traveling painting and printmaking retrospective of his work. His work is in the collections of many museums, among them the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh as well the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
Artists
Nathan Oliveira
Exhibition Publications
Nathan Oliveira: A Memorial Exhibition, Nathan Oliveira
Press
Galleries-San Francisco Chronicle Nathan Oliveira Download PDF (73 K)
Exhibition Works
Bowler 2010 Oil on canvas 84 x 70 inches
Skating Figure 2010 Oil on canvas 84 x 70 inches
Runner 2010 Oil on canvas 89 x 77 inches
Revisited Standing Figure 2010 Oil on canvas 89 x 77 inches
Figure 2010 Oil on canvas 66 x 50 inches
Figure with Shoe 2010 Oil on canvas 66 x 50 inches
Figure with Arm Up 2010 Oil on canvas 66 x 50 inches
Standing Figure 2010 Oil on canvas 66 x 54 inches
Untitled Figure 2010 Oil on canvas 66 x 50 inches
Untitled Standing Figure 2010 Oil on canvas 66 x 54 inches
Walking with Yellow Line 2010 Oil on canvas 66 x 55 inches
Untitled Mask 2010 Oil on canvas 50 x 40 inches
Runner 2001 Oil and alkyd on canvas 50 x 42 inches
Acrylic #5 1961 Acrylic and graphite on paper 12 1/2 x 10 1/2 inches
Bleeker Nude #4 1972 Acrylic and graphite on paper 17 1/2 x 11 1/2 inches
Bleeker Nude #19 1972 Acrylic and graphite on paper 17 1/2 x 11 1/2 inches
Charcoal Head 14 1979 Charcoal and watercolor on paper 24 x 19 inches
Dark Standing Sketch 1967 Ink and graphite on paper 19 x 16 inches
Figure '73 1973 Graphite on paper 17 x 11 inches
Head #1 1960 Watercolor and graphite on paper 12 x 9 inches
IMI 106 1989 Watercolor and charcoal on paper 24 x 19 inches
IMI 14 1989 Watercolor and charcoal on paper 24 x 19 inches
Model and Target 1967 Ink on paper 19 x 16 inches
Model with Jacket #3 1963 Ink on paper 17 x 14 inches
Model with Jacket #5 1963 Ink and watercolor on paper 17 x 14 inches
Seated Figure 1960 Watercolor and graphite on paper 12 x 9 inches
Seated Ink Sketch 1965 Watercolor and ink on paper 17 x 14 inches
Untitled- Figure Leaning 1972 Watercolor and graphite on paper 15 x 11 1/2 inches
Untitled Nude 1972 Graphite on paper 17 1/2 x 11 1/2 inches
Untitled Nude 1982 Charcoal and watercolor on paper 24 x 19 inches
Untitled Nude 1982 Charcoal on paper 24 x 19 inches
Untitled Nude 1989 Watercolor and charcoal on paper 24 x 19 inches
Untitled Nude 1989 Watercolor and charcoal on paper 24 x 19 inches
Douro Valley I 1997/2003 Monotype 22 1/4 x 30 1/6 inches
Douro Valley X 1997/2003 Monotype 22 1/4 x 30 1/8 inches
New Mexican Site #21 1991 Monotype 20 1/4 x 17 3/4 inches
Head 1985 Monotype 22 x 29 1/2 inches
Site 1985 Monotype 23 x 30 inches
Small Figure 1963 / 2008 Edition 22 of 25 Bronze 6 1/4 x 4 x 2 3/4 inches
Small Figure 1963 / 2008 Edition 23 of 25 Bronze 6 1/4 x 4 x 2 3/4 inches
Small Figure 1963 / 2008 Edition 24 of 25 Bronze 6 1/4 x 4 x 2 3/4 inches
Small Figure 1963 / 2008 Edition 25 of 25 Bronze 6 1/4 x 4 x 2 3/4 inches