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     It Is : 

A Magazine for Abstract Art 

No. 4 (Autumn 1959) 

P.G. Pavia, Peter Agostini, Mary Bonnell, Peter Busa, Emil Hess, Alfred Jensen, Elaine de Kooning, Albert Kotin, John Little, Adja Yunkers, William Baziotes, Robert Goldwater, Jack Tworkov, Andre Breton, John Cage, Sari Dienes, Thomas B. Hess, Hans Hofmann, Harry Holtzman, Allan Kaprow, Frederick J. Kiesler, Kermit Lansner, Nicholas Marsicano, Ad Reinhardt, Jeanne Reynal, John Stephan, James J. Sweeney, Mary Abbott, Peter Agostini, Williams Baziotes, Janice Biala, Mary Bonnell, Peter Busa, Nicholas Carone, Francesco di Cocco, Edward Corbett, Sari Dienes, Enrico Donati, John Ferren, Sam Francis, Ilse Getz, Sidney Gordon, Arshile Gorky, Philip Guston, Emil Hess, Hans Hofmann, Harry Holtzman, Alfred Jensen, Aristodimos Kaldis, Allan Kaprow, Frederick J. Kiesler, Franz Kline, Elaine de Kooning, Albert Kotkin, Nicholas Krushnick, Ibram Lassaw, John Little, Carrado Marca-Relli, Nicholas Mariscano, Knox Martin, Alice Mason, Constantino Nivola, Stephen Pace, Raymond Parker, Domenico Paulon, Ad Reinhardt, Robert Richenburg, Jeanne Reynal, Mark Rothko, John Saccaro, Thomas Sills, John Stephan, Sal Sirugo, Jack Tworkov, Adja Yunkers, Wilfrid Zogbaum 

Domenico-Paulon 

(Serra di Felice Gallery, 293 Lafayette Street): Somewhat given to seclusion, the Italian-born artist and industrial designer Domenico Paulon, now 87 years old and a practicing painter since 1923, hasn't exhibited since he came to this country in 1939. This show, organized by Henry Geldzahler, the city's former Commissioner of Cultural Affairs, presents a big group of paintings from 1949 to the present. Mr. Geldzahler's claim, at one point in his catalogue essay, that the Paulon work is "of equal quality with that of his New York colleagues, the Abstract Expressionists," isn't really sustained here. Still, the canvases, rhythmically designed hard-edge color abstractions, are very often very seductive. A fine, knowing colorist, Mr. Paulon takes delight in big contrasts and small adjustments. In textures varying from harsh to buttery suede, he pits one feisty red against another or two or three, bounces complementaries off a sweet or dour green, forces an orange triangle to mediate between blues. One beauty is "Triade," 1952, a work of heavy texture in which dark, brooding greens sprawl in strident geometry on a carpet of mournful red. It's a late launching, but an auspicious one. 

      LUGANO - In recent days the Domenico Paulon Foundation of New York has donated to the City of Lugano a significant nucleus of sculptures by the artist Domenico Paulon. 

The object of the donation are eight posthumous fusion bronzes that document Paulon's activity after his stay in Ticino, during the 1920s. Among these are "Three female torsos", taken from plaster models donated to the city of Lugano in 1986. The particularity of the three torsos lies in the modernity resulting from the forms 

abstract bodies, also due to the choice of compositional cuts. From the general plastic setting of the three plasters, made in the second half of the thirties, emerges that innovative imprint in an abstract direction that will lead the artist to deal with works marked by an ever-increasing geometric matrix (think of the maturity paintings made in New York in the 70s). 

Together with the torsos, and heads are part of the recent donation, among which the portrait of the boxer Primo Carnera, world heavyweight champion, which Paulon was able to portray in 1932 on the occasion of his meeting with the German champion Gühring, particularly expressive. Also noteworthy is the youthful portrait of Bruno Morenzoni, an artist particularly attached to Paulon, who was also oriented towards a dual pictorial and sculptural activity. 

Domenico Paulon 

Born in Barcis (Udine) in 1897, Domenico Paulon began his training in Rome where, from 1919 to 1923, he attended architecture and painting courses at the Istituto Superiore di Belle Arti. The study of anatomy, 􏰅gure and Classical aesthetics, combined with the in􏰆uence of the metaphysical school, will form the basis of his research. After moving to Lugano in 1923, Paulon continues his 

 From New York 8 bronzes by Domenico Paulon donated to the city - Ticinonline

artistic activity, exhibiting part of his pictorial production in an exhibition organized at the Kunstmuseum in Zurich. During the 1930s he settled initially in Berlin (the city where he works as an industrial designer) and later in Frankfurt, where at the Adler Werke company he works with the architect Walter Gropius in the automotive 􏰅eld, participating in the creation of the 􏰅rst car conceived on the principles of aerodynamics. At the outbreak of the Second World War, in 1939, he moved to the States
United, in New York, (where he lived until his death in 1996) dedicating himself to painting and teaching. A progressive departure from the figurative leads the artist to concentrate on an ever greater abstraction of the form. From the forties onwards, in fact, the basic principles on which Paulon's production is based will be those of geometric abstractionism and rational analysis of space, a space in which the essence of color is intended as the predominant radiant energy. His main exhibitions include the solo shows at the Serra de Felice Gallery in New York and the Italian-American Museum in San Francisco (1983), and participation in the group shows "The Underknown" in New York (1984) and "Form and color "at the Swiss Institute in New York (1984).  

12 ARTISTS SHOWN IN 'UNDERKNOWN,' AT P.S.1
By MICHAEL BRENSON
Published: October 26, 1984
''UNDERKNOWN: Twelve Artists Re-Seen in 1984'' is a surprising show - surprising in that an institution is finally paying attention to artists who have worked lifetimes with little or no place in the sun; surprising in that the institution involved is P.S. 1 in Long Island City, whose definition of alternative art, to which it is committed, had previously been confined to experimental modes of expression; surprising because the curator of the exhibition is Henry Geldzahler, who remains far more identified with bright lights than with the patience and sweat of the long distance run.

''Underknown'' is welcome and revealing. Mr. Geldzahler has assembled a relatively coherent group. Jan M"uller, Gandy Brodie, Bob Thompson, Frank Auerbach, Eug ene Leroy, Walter Murch and David Park fit into a general category of expressive figuration. Anne Ryan, John McLaughlin, Sally Hazelet Drummond, Domenico Paulon and Ernest Briggs represent different approaches to painterly abstraction. All the artists have some relevance to today's passionate interest in the possibilities of paint. Of the 12, only Drummond, Leroy, Paulon and Auerbach, who is certainly not underknown in Europe, are still living.