Paul John Wonner (April 24, 1920April 23, 2008) was an American artist best known for his

still-life A still life (plural: still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, shells, etc.) or man-made (drinking glasses, boo ...

paintings done in an abstract expressionist style. Born in Tucson, Arizona, he received a B.A. in 1952, an M.A. in 1953, and an M.L.S. in 1955―all from the University of California, Berkeley. He rose to prominence in the 1950s as an abstract expressionist associated with the Bay Area Figurative Movement, along with his partner, Theophilus Brown, whom he met in 1952 while attending graduate school. In 1956, Wonner started painting a series of dreamlike male bathers and boys with bouquets. In 1962, he began teaching at the University of California, Los Angeles. By the end of the 1960s, he had abandoned his loose figurative style and focused exclusively on

still life A still life (plural: still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly wikt:inanimate, inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, shells, etc.) or artificiality, m ...

s in a

hyperrealist Jean Baudrillard ( , , ; 27 July 1929 – 6 March 2007) was a French sociologist, philosopher and poet with interest in cultural studies. He is best known for his analyses of media, contemporary culture, and technological communication, as we ...

style. Wonner died April 23, 2008, in San Francisco, California.

Permanent collections

Wonner's works are included in the permanent collections of: *the Cantor Arts Center (

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

, California), * the Crocker Art Museum, ( Sacramento, California), *the Davis Art Center, ( Davis, California), *the Honolulu Museum of Art, *the Hunter Museum of American Art, ( Chattanooga, Tennessee), *the

Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art opened in 1994 in Kansas City, Missouri. With a $5 million annual budget and approximately 75,000 visitors each year, it is Missouri's first and largest contemporary museum. Founders The core of the museum's perm ...

, (

Kansas City, Missouri Kansas City (abbreviated KC or KCMO) is the largest city in Missouri by population and area. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 508,090 in 2020, making it the 36th most-populous city in the United States. It is the central ...

), *the

Kresge Art Museum The Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum (colloquially MSU Broad), is a contemporary art museum at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan. It opened on November 10, 2012. History On June 1, 2007, Michigan State received a $28 millio ...

, *the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, (

Michigan State University Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the fi ...

, East Lansing, Michigan), *the McNay Art Museum, ( San Antonio, Texas), *the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California, *the Sheldon Museum of Art ( Lincoln, Nebraska), *the

Smithsonian American Art Museum The Smithsonian American Art Museum (commonly known as SAAM, and formerly the National Museum of American Art) is a museum in Washington, D.C., part of the Smithsonian Institution. Together with its branch museum, the Renwick Gallery, SAAM holds o ...

( Washington, D.C.), *the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and *the

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, often referred to as The Guggenheim, is an art museum at 1071 Fifth Avenue on the corner of East 89th Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It is the permanent home of a continuously exp ...

( New York City).https://www.guggenheim.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/guggenheim-artistic-license-family-guide.pdf

References

* Jones, Caroline A., ''Bay Area Figurative Art 1950-1956'', Berkeley, University of California Press, 1990, 93. * San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, ''Paul Wonner, Abstract Realist'', Los Angeles, Fellows of Contemporary Art, 1981.

External links

Essay on Paul Wonner

John Berggruen Gallery
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wonner, Paul John American abstract artists Abstract painters Abstract expressionist artists American Expressionist painters American Figurative Expressionism Photorealist artists 1920 births 2008 deaths Gay artists American LGBT artists Painters from California San Francisco Art Institute alumni Artists from Tucson, Arizona Painters from Arizona 20th-century American painters 20th-century American male artists American male painters 21st-century American painters 21st-century American male artists LGBT people from Arizona 20th-century LGBT people

Permanent collections

See also

References

External links