Gil Cuatrecasas

Gil Cuatrecasas

Gil Cuatrecasas [1936-2004] was a master colorist who received significant critical acclaim in Washington in the 1960s.  He was an important member of the Washington Color School, and his friends included Morris Louis and Kenneth Noland. Those masters have been enshrined in the pantheon of great American Color Field painters — a movement that paralleled Abstract Expressionism in New York. But Cuatrecasas carefully placed his collection into storage after a tragedy in 1976.

This exhibition is drawn from his “Torino Collection” — named for the Italian city in which Cuatrecasas painted in a grand villa from 1970 to 1976.  Paintings from this series had originally been slated for a solo exhibition at the Contemporary Arts Museum of Houston. But beginning in 1976 Cuatrecasas suffered a devastating sequence of events that began with a destructive flood, was followed by a bout with alcoholism, compounded by tuberculosis, and ended with cancer.  Art historian and curator Peter Hastings Falk points out that “Cuatrecasas was a genius of single-minded pursuit who created his own unique style,” says Falk, “Then he suddenly slipped from sight. Now his collection presents a new and compelling chapter in art history, shared by America and Spain.”

Artist Details

• Gil Cuatrecasas: United States
• Date: 1935-2004
• Category: Abstract, Expressionism