Philip Taaffe (born 1955) is an American artist, who has shown his works all around the world. His work sometimes blended motifs from multiple cultures.

Biography

Taaffe was born in

Elizabeth Elizabeth or Elisabeth may refer to: People * Elizabeth (given name), a female given name (including people with that name) * Elizabeth (biblical figure), mother of John the Baptist Ships * HMS ''Elizabeth'', several ships * ''Elisabeth'' (sch ...

, New Jersey and studied at the

Cooper Union The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art (Cooper Union) is a private college at Cooper Square in New York City. Peter Cooper founded the institution in 1859 after learning about the government-supported École Polytechnique in ...

in New York, gaining a

Bachelor of Fine Arts A Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) is a standard undergraduate degree for students for pursuing a professional education in the visual, fine or performing arts. It is also called Bachelor of Visual Arts (BVA) in some cases. Background The Bachelor ...

in 1977.

Career

An admirer of Matisse's cut-outs and of Synthetic Cubism, from the mid-1980s he began to borrow images and designs directly from more recent artists. In ''We Are Not Afraid'' (1985), he develops

Barnett Newman Barnett Newman (January 29, 1905 – July 4, 1970) was an American artist. He has been critically regarded as one of the major figures of abstract expressionism, and one of the foremost color field painters. His paintings explore the sense o ...

’s zip motif into a spiral; the title is a reply to Newman's series of paintings ''Who's Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue'' (1966–70). In ''Defiance'' (1986), he reinterprets work by

Bridget Riley Bridget Louise Riley (born 24 April 1931) is an English painter known for her op art paintings. She lives and works in London, Cornwall and the Vaucluse in France. Early life and education Riley was born on 24 April 1931 in West Norwood, No ...

. His first solo exhibition was in New York in 1982. He has since been included in exhibitions at

Carnegie International The Carnegie International is a North American exhibition of contemporary art from around the globe. It was first organized at the behest of industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie on November 5, 1896 in Pittsburgh. Carnegie established th ...

, two Sydney Bienniales, and three Whitney Bienniales. His work is held in the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

, New York, the

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a modern and contemporary art museum located in San Francisco, California. A nonprofit organization, SFMOMA holds an internationally recognized collection of modern and contemporary art, and was ...

, the

Philadelphia Museum of Art The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMoA) is an art museum originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The main museum building was completed in 1928 on Fairmount, a hill located at the northwest end of the Benjamin Fr ...

, and the

Whitney Museum of American Art The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–1942), ...

. A painting by Taaffe is in the private collection of

Elton John Sir Elton Hercules John (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight; 25 March 1947) is a British singer, pianist and composer. Commonly nicknamed the "Rocket Man" after his 1972 hit single of the same name, John has led a commercially successful career a ...

Woodside, Old Windsor Woodside is a large detached house with of gardens in Old Windsor, Berkshire, on the edge of Windsor Great Park. The house has been rebuilt several times since the 18th century. The Rococo gardens of Woodside were laid out in the mid-18th century ...

; it had previously hung in

Gianni Versace Giovanni Maria "Gianni" Versace (; 2 December 1946 – 15 July 1997) was an Italian fashion designer, socialite and businessman. He was the founder of Versace, an international luxury-fashion house that produces accessories, fragrances, make-u ...

's townhouse in New York. Taaffe lives and works in New York City.

References

Sources

* ''Philip Taaffe, The Life of Forms, works 1980–2008'' by Brooks Adams, Holger Broeker, Markus Brüderlin, and Kay Heymer; 2008;

Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg The Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg is an art museum in central Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, opened 1994. It presents modern and contemporary art and is financed by the ''Kunststiftung Volkswagen.'' It takes up aspects of the industrial city of Wolfsburg, whic ...

, Hatje Cantz, Ostfildern; * ''Philip Taaffe, Composite Nature'' by Stan Brakage; Peter Blum Editions, 1998, New York, * ''Philip Taaffe'' by Enrique Juncosa, Robert Rosenblum, and Robert Creely; IVAM Center del Carme, Generalitat Valenciana, 2000; * * * ''Inside the Artist's Studio'',

Princeton Architectural Press Princeton Architectural Press is a small press publisher, specializing in books on architecture, design, photography, landscape, and visual culture, with over 1,000 titles on its backlist. In 2013, it added a line of stationery products, including ...

, 2015. ()

External links

*
Philip Taaffe on Artcyclopedia

Philip Taaffe at Jablonka Galerie, Berlin

Philip Taaffe at Luhring Augustine, New York
{{DEFAULTSORT:Taaffe, Philip Living people 1955 births 20th-century American painters 20th-century American printmakers 21st-century American painters 21st-century male artists American abstract artists American male painters Artists from Elizabeth, New Jersey Cooper Union alumni Postmodern artists