Giorgio Cavallon

(Sorico, Italy, 1904 - 1989, New York, New York)

North America, American

A pioneering Abstract Expressionist artist, Cavallon is noted for the care he gave to applying diaphanous layers of white to his canvases, obscuring and providing a field for soft-edged blocks of color. Cavallon spoke of using white to “cancel things out,” but his delicate veils create luminous surfaces and reveal the artist’s process. A consummate craftsman, Cavallon ground his own pigments. Cavallon immigrated to the United States as a teenager where he studied figurative painting at the National Academy and later with Hans Hofmann in Provincetown, Massachusetts. The work of Piet Mondrian and the warm light of Cavallon’s native Northern Italy were also formative influences. Cavallon spent three years in Italy in the 1930s, and co-founded the American Abstract Artists group following his return to the United States. He served as an assistant to Arshile Gorky in the Mural Division of the WPA Federal Art Project. Cavallon’s work was featured in group exhibitions curated by Leo Castelli and Sidney Janis and he was later represented by Charles Egan and later Samuel Kootz. Among other important exhibitions in which Cavallon participated were ‘Documenta II’, the 1959 Whitney Annual and the Museum of Modern Art’s 1951 ‘Abstract Art in America.’ Cavallon was friends with Jack Tworkov, James Brooks and other Provincetown artists. Also an accomplished chef, Cavallon relished hunting for wild mushrooms with John Cage and had recipes published by James Beard in the ‘New York Times.’ Cavallon’s paintings are held in many museum collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Guggenheim Museum, New York; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; and Albright Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo.

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