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Phillip Pavia    (American, 1912-2005)
Phillip Pavia - Untitled (Sculptures) h: 29 x w: 15 x d: 11 in / h: 73.7 x w: 38.1 x d: 27.9 cm
Phillip Pavia
Untitled circa 1980-1990
 		   

Biography
1912 - 1934 Born in the United States, Stratford, Connecticut. Parents are of Provencal-Italian origin. Studies for a short time at Yale, then goes to New York City to study at the Art Students’ League. Among fellow students, meets Jackson Pollack and forms an on and off friendship. Also meets Arshile Gorky, the idol of all, who presides over an informal lyceum in the lunchroom.
1934 - 1937 At his father’s insistence, Pavia goes to Italy to study at the Accademia d’Arte in Florence. Shuttles back and forth to Paris drawn by his love for Picasso’s art (acquired through Gorky). IN Paris meets Americans John Ferren, John Graham, and Landes Lewitin. Meets Henry Miller. His fiery talks in the cafes about avant gardism and the decadence of the world and his attacks on the then popular American expatriate writers instills in Pavia the idea of inner art making. The writer, twenty years older, will be a big influence in Pavia’s life.
1938 - 1945 Returning to New York, Pavia lives and works on Eighth Street and MacDougal, “the go around” of the new American artists. Revives friendships with John Graham and Landes Lewitin, now home from Paris. Sees Jackson Pollack often. Works on the WPA as a sculptor until it is dismantled. Pavia Keeps thinking of Paris, its cafe talks and arguments and accidental meetings and wants them in New York. During the war years, the Waldorf Cafeteria on the corner of Eighth Street and Sixth Avenue becomes a meeting place for artists, the correlative of Paris cafe. the Waldorf Cafe becomes the nucleus of the 8th Street Club. Among the regulars were deKooning, Franz Kline, Landes Lewitin, and Aristodimos Kaldis. Pavia keeps the feuding very hot. On the sidewalks outside, are the famous refugee artists from Paris strolling up and down 8th Street making history very real.
1948 Organizes “The Club” with deKooning, Kline, Tworkov, Egan, Resnick, Lassaw, Cavallon, and Marca-Rell. In a few months, ‘The Club’ includes Harold Rosenberg, Guston, Vincente, Leo Castelli, Reinhardt, Ferren, Navaretta, Pearl Fine, Elaine deKooning, Mercedes Matter, and others. Pavia is chief panel maker for 7 years.
1956 Resigns “The Club” to publish It Is magazine.
1957 12 Sculptors, television show, Camera three, Station Four, NBC.
1962 “Ides of March,” large bronze abstraction for portecochere of Hotel Hilton, Avenue of Americas, New York, New York.
1967 “Sunrise is installed in front of Guggenheim Museum for one year, New York, New York.
1995 Honorary Doctorate, Pennsylvania Academy of Painting and Sculpture.
2000 Pollock-Krasner Grant
2003 Artist Equity Lifetime Achievement Award with David Findlay Jr.
2004 Guggenheim Grant for Sculpture

Exhibitions
2005 Terracotta, O.K. Harris Gallery, New York, New York.
2002 Phillip Pavia, Broome Street Gallery, New York, New York.
2000 Aspects of White, Babcock Gallery, New York, New York.
1999 World Artists of Millennium, Elizabeth Foundation at United Nations, New York, New York.
1997 Three Monumental heads of Picasso, Aquamarine Sculpture Park in Chelsea on Hudson, New York, New York.
1991 Phillip Pavia, Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, NY.
1991 Phillip Pavia, Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, NY.
1990 Phillip Pavia, Il Salotto Galleria, Lake Como, Italy.
1990 Phillip Pavia, Il Salotto Galleria, Lake Como, Italy.
1987 Phillip Pavia, Thorp Gallery, New York, New York.
1987 Phillip Pavia, Thorp Gallery, New York, New York.
1985 Stone, Thorp Gallery, New York, NY.
1985 One Penn Plaza Group Exhibition, One Penn Plaza, New York, NY.
1985 Stone, Thorp Gallery, New York, NY.
1985 One Penn Plaza Group Exhibition, One Penn Plaza, New York, NY.
1984 Metropolitan Museum Twentieth Century Collection, Selections from, Herbert H. Lehman College of Art Gallery.
1984 Metropolitan Museum Twentieth Century Collection, Selections from, Herbert H. Lehman College of Art Gallery.
1983 Five Bronze Heads, Public Trust Exhibition, Washington D.C.
1982 Phillip Pavia: Imaginary Portraits of The Club One-man exhibition, Max Protetch Gallery, New York, NY.
1980 Portraits: Real and Imagined Portrait of Esteban Vicente, Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, New York, Awarded first prize.
1977 New York State: The State of Art, Bicentennial celebration, New York State Museum. Albany, New York. Lily Pond marble abstraction exhibited with Abstract Expressionist painters.
1975 Phillip Pavia and Tony Smith Two-man exhibition at Newark Museum, New Jersey.
1973 John F. Kennedy portrait, 6 foot Bronze head. Exhibited at Metropolitan Museum of Art.
1971 Art in Embassies, Phillip Pavia and David Smith, one year in American embassy in Paris. Another year traveling through South American embassies. Organized by the Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York.
1969 Phillip Pavia: one-man exhibition of marble abstractions, Martha Jackson Gallery, New York, New York.
1969 Monumental Marble Abstraction, Cooper Hewitt Museum, New York. Ten foot high marble abstraction in garden, later placed at entrance to Cloisters, Fort Tryon Park, New York, New York.
1968 Vermont International Symposium, twelve sculptors from different countries, selected by United State Department, Curator, Paul Aschenbach, in Proctor, Vermont, carved 26 ton piece in Vermont Marble.
1967 Phillip Pavia: one man exhibition, traveling show of marble abstractions, San Francisco Museum of Art, San Francisco, University of Iowa Art Museum, Gallery of Modern Art, Washington D.C.
1966 Phillip Pavia: one-man show, Martha Jackson Gallery, New York, New York.
1963 Twenty American Sculptors, large bronze abstraction selected by the Museum of Modern Art, New York, for Battersea Park, London, England. Covered by the BBC.
1962 Continuity and Change, old and new work by, Connecticut.
1962 Group Exhibition, Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York.
1962 Group Exhibition, Green Gallery, New York, New York.
1961 Phillip Pavia: One-man exhibition, first all abstract bronze exhibition in New York City. Kottz Gallery, New York, New York.
1960 Phillip Pavia: Large wax abstractions, Great Jones Gallery, New York, New York.
1959 Heads, Large group show of heads in all media, Great Jones Gallery, New York, New York.
1952 - 1956 Stable Annual, exhibitions of paintings and sculpture, Stable Gallery, New York, New York.
1950 Ninth Street Show, New York, New York
1946 Five Americans: Sculpture Heads, Wildenstein Gallery, New York, New York.
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