A Set of Circus Paintings

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Description

There’s the balloon vendor, confident, straightforward and approaching the viewer to make his sale. But there’s also a shadow figure, … Read more There’s the balloon vendor, confident, straightforward and approaching the viewer to make his sale. But there’s also a shadow figure, boldly executed, perhaps a glimpse of the inner man, or a passerby who happens to wear a similar hat. This set of paintings is the work of American artist Pascal “Pat” Cucaro (1915-2004) and are classic examples of the artist’s vibrant, mid-century expressionist style.
Active in the San Francisco Bay Area during the Beat era and of Italian descent, Cucaro often focused on "people-people" paintings, capturing scenes of crowds, street life, coffee shops, and, most notably, clowns and circus life, memories from his childhood summers working in a circus.
The artist’s work has been exhibited widely and is held in over 50 museum collections. Further, in 1965 Cucaro was nominated for the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Signatures: Lower left, both paintings. See detail images. See less