John Grillo 1917–2014
A leading exponent of Bay Area Abstract Expressionism during the 1940s, John Grillo was a painter, sculptor, and printmaker regarded as one the purest and most influential “action painters” on the West Coast. Though his diverse and colorful body of work ranged from abstraction to figuration, his art is considered linked in its uniquely aggressive and spontaneous approach. Grillo creates bold, fluid, gestural works such as Untitled #69 (1947) and Untitled (1949) that draw on the influence of Surrealist automatism. After moving to New York in 1948, Grillo began a series of paintings consisting of small, precisely organized colored squares, as seen in Untitled (1951) and Untitled (1959); these and other works were influenced by the color theories of Hans Hofmann, with whom he studied. Grillo’s later work was more figurative, but no less colorful, with works such as Blue Hat (1978) or Duerme (1980) recalling the Expressionism of Max Beckmann.

1947 Daliel Gallery
1960 Tanager Gallery
1961 The Howard Wise Gallery
1962 University of California, Berkeley
1964 Butler Institute of American Art
1969 Benedict Art Center
1970 Robert Dain Gallery
1973 Landmark Gallery
1982 Jean Lumbard Fine Arts
1984 Museo de Arte Moderna
2000 Aaron Gallery
1988 Provincetown Art Association

Selected Group Exhibitions
1950 The Kootz Gallery
1955 Walker Arts Center
1953 Whitney Museum of American Art
1960 Walker Art Center
1961 Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
1961 Yale University
1962 Dallas Museum of Fine Arts
1962 Seattle Worlds Fair
1963 Museum of Modern Art, New York
1963 San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
1970 The Brooklyn Museum of Art
1973 The Oakland Museum of California
1979 The Metropolitan Museum of Art
1996 The Laguna Beach Museum

Selected Collections

The British Museum
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum of Art
The Whitney Museum of American Art
The Brooklyn Museum of Art
Walker Art Center
Los Angeles County Museum
Butler Institute of American Art
Bundy Art Gallery Museum
Smith College Museum
Bennington College
Portland Museum