Provincetown Art Association and Museum
Presented in conjunction with the PAAM
exhibition June 24-August 14, 2011
John Grillo played a seminal role in the
development of Abstract Expressionism in the San
Francisco bay area and is acknowledged as
“perhaps the first and purest action painter on the
west coast.” (Thomas Albright Art in The San
Francisco Bay Area 1945-1980). In 1946 Grillo
enrolled in the San Francisco School of Fine Arts
under the G.I. Bill; when funds and art supplies
were scarce, he experimented with whatever was
on hand, including coffee grounds and cocoa. But
as the art historian and curator Susan Landauer
describes, “he reserved his most radical
experimentation for the medium of watercolor.
For sheer inventiveness of technique [his
watercolors] rivaled vanguard developments in the
East, and in their spontaneity and dramatic
intensity, many of these paintings bear the
hallmarks of classic Abstract Expressionism.”
Remarkably, Grillo’s gestural work predates or
parallels the development of action paintings by
celebrated abstract expressionists Franz Kline,
William De Kooning and Jackson Pollack. The
exhibition at PAAM will feature over thirty of
Grillo’s groundbreaking watercolors. Please join
the artist, now in his 95th year, for a gallery
discussion at PAAM.
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