

Bill Paskewitz
Entitled 5 Lives for the Road, this 2001 oil on canvas abstract painting is by Bill Paskewitz (1953-2014). Paskewitz was a New York-born painter and influential Bay Area art educator whose work bridged the traditions of European art history and the expressive experimentation of postwar American painting. Raised and educated in New York City, he studied at Cooper Union and regularly visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art to draw from its collections, developing a lifelong engagement with the Old Masters. Deeply influenced by the gestural abstraction of Willem de Kooning and the layered imagery of David Salle, Paskewitz developed a distinctive visual language that moved fluidly between figuration and abstraction. Fascinated by traditional artistic materials and methods, he frequently made his own drawing media, burning gathered twigs to produce charcoal and harvesting natural ochres from the earth to create pigments. After relocating to California in the late 1970s, Paskewitz continued his prolific artistic practice while becoming a highly respected college professor of art and art history in the San Francisco Bay Area.
2001
Oil on Canvas
15"x19" framed, 14"x17.5" unframed
Signed, dated and titled on the back. Framed in a vintage double lath wood frame with a cherry-oak exterior and black interior. Excellent vintage condition.