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Man with Raised Arms, 1960-62, watercolor on paper, 18” x 12”
Paul Wonner is best known for his Abstract Expressionist still life paintings. Much of his work focuses on small objects, jars, pitchers, fruit, etc. or on specific figures that dominate the space. He was interested in art as a youth and his parents hired a tutor to help him with his drawing during high school.
Wonner was born in Tucson, Arizona in 1920, and after his early art education set out for California in 1937. He settled in Oakland where he attended the California College of Arts and Crafts. His art school experience provided Wonner with basic drawing and painting techniques. He graduated from CCAC in 1941 and was soon drafted into the United States Army. During his service, stationed in San Antonio, Texas, he continued his pursuit of art and even set up a small local studio.
He was discharged in 1946 and immediately headed for New York City to continue his artistic career. During the Abstract Expressionist movement in the 1940s Wonner worked as a commercial artist in New York City. To satisfy his interest in art he studied at the Art Students League and attended lectures at Robert Motherwells studio where he was exposed to other artists, critics and writers. He returned to California in 1950 to attend the University of California, Berkeley. At UC Berkeley he was influenced by the elements of Cubism.
In 1957 he joined a group of eleven other artists for an exhibition called Contemporary Bay Area Figurative Painting, at the Oakland Museum. He established a studio in San Francisco in 1960 where he continued to focus on his developing figurative style. During the 1960s his paintings dealt with individual objects arranged in a setting. He accepted a teaching position at the University of California, Santa Barbara, in 1968 and went on to teach in various locations in the Los Angeles area. He settled in San Francisco in 1976 where he continued to work as an Abstract Realist, creating his still lives.
Paul Wonner died on Wednesday, April 23, 2008 on the eve of his 88th birthday in San Francisco.
BORN 1920 Tuscon, AR - DIED 2008 San Francisco, CA
EDUCATION
1941 B.A., California College of Arts and Craft, Oakland, CA
1947 Attended Art Students League of New York, New York, NY
1952 B.A., University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA
1953 M.A., University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA
2008 M.L.S., University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2004 John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco (solo)
2000 Interiors, The Gallery on the Hudson, Irvington, NY (solo)
1999 The Painted Canvas, John Berggruen Gallery San Francisco, CA (solo)
Views form the Bay Area: The Shift Towards Figuration, Henry Art Gallery,
University of Washington Seattle, WA
DC Moore Gallery New York, NY (solo)
1998 Paul Wonner: Still Lifes, Art Institute of Southern California Laguna Beach, CA
1997 Important Bay Area Paintings, 1954-1960, John Berggruen Gallery San Francisco, CA
1996 Paul Wonner: Small Format Paintings and Watercolors, 1958-1965, John Berggruen Gallery
San Francisco, CA (solo)
1995 A Bay Area Connection:Works from the Anderson Collection, 1954-1984,
Trinton Museum of Art Santa Clara, CA
1994 John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco, CA (solo)
1993 Still Life, 1963-1993, Gerald Peters Gallery Santa Fe, NM
1992 Coe Kerr Gallery New York, NY (solo)
1991 American Realism and Figurative Art, 1952-1990, Miyagi Museum Sendai, Japan
John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco, CA (solo)
1990 John Berggruen Gallery San Francisco, CA (solo)
1988 John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco, CA (solo)
1987 Hirschl and Adler Modern New York, NY (solo)
John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco, CA (solo)
1985 John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco, CA (solo)
1983 Hirschl & Adler Modern, New York, NY (solo)
1982 Realism and Realities: The Other Side of American painting, 1940-1960,
Rutgers University Art Gallery, New Brunswick, NJ
81-82 Contemporary American Realism since 1960, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts,
Philadelphia, PA
1981 The Art Museum Galleries, California State University, Long Beach, CA (solo)
John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco, CA (solo)
Paul Wonner: Abstract Realist, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
1979 James Corcoran Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (solo)
1978 John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco, CA (solo)
76-77 Painting and Sculpture in California: The Modern Era, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art,
and National Collection of Fine Arts, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC
1975 The Art Museum Galleries, California State University, Long Beach, CA
1974 Charles Campbell Gallery, San Francisco, CA (solo)
1973 Jodi Scully Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (solo)
1972 Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA (solo)
Fresno State University, (with William Theophilus Brown) Fresno, CA (solo)
Charles Campbell Gallery, San Francisco, CA (solo)
1971 Felix Landau Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (solo)
Poindexter Gallery, New York, NY (solo)
1968 Felix Landau Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (solo)
1967 Landau-Alan Gallery, New York, NY (solo)
1965 John Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco, CA (solo)
Marion Koogler McNay Art Institute, San Antonio, CA (solo)
Waddington Galleries, London, UK (solo)
1964 Felix Landau Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (solo)
Poindexter Gallery, New York, NY (solo)
Esther Bear Gallery, Santa Barbara, CA (solo)
Pittsburgh International Exhibition of Contemporary Painting, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, PA
1963 Felix Landau Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (solo)
1962 Recent Paintings USA: The Figure, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
1962 Felix Landau Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (solo)
California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, CA
Poindexter Gallery, New York, NY (solo)
1960 Felix Landau Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (solo)
Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA (solo)
1959 Felix Landau Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (solo)
1957 Contemporary Bay Area Figurative Painting, Oakland Art Museum, Oakland, CA
1956 San Francisco Art Association Gallery, California School of Fine Arts, San Francisco, CA (solo)
M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, CA
San Francisco Museum of Art, San Francisco, CA (solo)
1955 III Bienal, Museu de Arte Moderna, Sao Paulo, Brazil
1954 Younger American Painters, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY
SELECTED PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
Arizona State University Art Museum, Tempe, AZ
Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
California State University Art Museum, Long Beach, CA
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.
Hunter Museum of Art, Chattanooga, TN
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN
Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
The Oakland Museum Pacific Bell Collection, Los Angeles, CA
The Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa, OK
Museum of Modern Art, Santa Barbara, CA
Museum of Art, Salt Lake City, UT
PARTNERS COLLECTION
PAUL WONNER
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