Simon Gaon (born 1943) is an American painter, Expressionist, and action painter. He is best known for his intense, tempestuous, action oriented paintings of the cityscape. He was also a co-founder of the Street Painters, a group of eight New York City artists who painted directly from the city life they observed on the streets of America's largest city.
Early life and education
Born in 1943 in Manhattan, Gaon at an early age displayed creative talents. By age 16, he began painting while attending the Roosevelt School in Stamford, Connecticut. A key influence on him was painter Arthur Bressler (1927–1975) who was Gaon's teacher and mentor. Gaon graduated from the High School of Art and Design in New York City. In 1962, Gaon won the art studio award scholarship from the high school of Art and design. which allowed him to study at the Art Students League of New York. In 1964, he studied in Academia 63 in Haarlem, the Netherlands, and furthered his European education with the Art Students League Scholarship. In 1966 he won the Edward G. McDowell traveling scholarship that allowed him to return to Europe. In 1968 he had a one-man show at the Art Student League that was part of the traveling scholarship. He later stayed more than ten years in Europe, primarily in Paris, where his style evolved. The works of the painters: Derain, Vlaminck as well as Soutine, Kokoschka, and especially Van Gogh have all strongly influenced his work.
Gaon's philosophy and style
In his work, Gaon is influenced more by his temperament than intellectualism. He prefers to take risks, and edit later, putting the living experience of painting at the forefront of his craft. As an action painter, he immerses himself physically in his art, using pigment, emotion, and poetry to reinvent nature in a personal way. He paints nature and the city with abandonment and freedom, harnessing the different layers of the subconscious to help form the painting. However, life in all its energy and contradiction remains his inspiration. Subjects of his art include the night, the stormy sea, and the frenetic, carnival-like neon-lit city.
Art
Gaon is most famous for his Time Square series, (1998) displaying the chaos and confusion of city. His depictions of the locale have been called dizzying, disorienting and even mind-boggling. His works manifest the vitality, wildness, diverseness, and hysterical quality of the urban setting, ever expanding to the point of explosion. Gaon's chaotic Time Square, helps him, as an artist, express the contradictory life forces that live within him.
Gaon also focuses on those who live on the urban periphery, the street people, immigrants, and prostitutes. His paintings go beyond the immediate perception of these subjects, to uncover the inherent contradictions both in his subjects psyche and social position, and in his own consciousness. His subjects display a noble and prophetic character, as if spiritually from a bygone era, yet awkwardly entrenched in a harsh contemporary reality.
Museums and collections
Museum of Jewish Art Hechal Shlomo Jerusalem Israel ( Rabbi from Bukhara ) Museum Temple Emanu-El of New York Museum of the City of New York, New York New York Historical Society, New York Yeshiva University Museum, New York Hudson River Museum, New York Queen's College Museum West Valley Art Museum, Surprise, Arizona Art Students League, New York White and Case, New York France Loisirs, Paris, France Millennium Hotel, New York Carrot Capital, LLC, New York
Exhibitions 2025 Venezia, Italy Galleria Alice Schanzer 2024MUSEO PALAZZO DOEBBING SUTRI (VT). Italy2016 Andrea Tardini Gallery, Venice Scuderie Aldobrandini, Rome2015 Espace Rachi Paris2008Gallerie OPEN, Berlin, Germany Gallerie Rose, Hamburg, Germany2007Berlin Capital Club, Berlin Germany2006Famira Gallery, Sylt Germany Nabi Gallery2005Dankert, Box, Meier, Rechtsanwalte (Law Offices) Berlin, Germany Peter Findlay Gallery, New York, NYTon Warndorff Gallery, Haarlem, The Netherlands Nabi Gallery, New York, NY Gallery Rose, Hamburg, Germany Famira Gallery, Sylt Germany2004 Jan Famira Gallery, Sylt, Germany West Vallery Art2003West Valley Museum, Surprise, Arizona2002Ludvika Konsthall, Ludvika, Sweden1999Galleri Rubens, Smedjebacken, Sweden Realismus Galerie, Kasel, Germany Galerie Rose, Hamburg, Germany1997Galerie Peter Fischinger, Stuttgart, Germany1995Galerie Peter Fischinger, Stuttgart, German Susan Conway Gallery, Washington, D.C.1992Frank Bustamante Gallery, New York, NY1991Galerie Le Chainon Manquant, Paris, France Loisits Corporate Offices, Paris, France1990Galerie Peter Fischinger, Stuttgart, Germany Galerie Rose, Hamburg, Germany1989The Exhibition Space, New York (sponsored by Ingber Gallery)1988Inngber Gallery, New York, NY1986Nicolas Roerich Museum, New York, NY1974Galerie des Ambassadeurs, Paris, France1968' Art Students League, New York City
References
External links http://andreatardinigallery.com/site/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/vtour_sgaon/index.html Peter Findlay Gallery Spanierman Gallery https://web.archive.org/web/20110711063528/http://www.galerierose.com/katalog/Katalog_Gaon_web.pdf http://www.nabiarts.com/06/gaon06.htm