Untitled Seated Figure II, 1990/94: oil and wax on canvas, 84 x 65-3/4” Artist Nathan Oliveira passed away in November 2010. Oliveira was born in 1928, was a celebrated and long-standing member of the art community in the San Francisco Bay Area. He was a painter who had lived here all his life, and had a long teaching career at Stanford University. As an artist, he came into national prominence in 1959 when he was included in the New York Museum of Modern Art ‘s New Images of Man, the exhibition that heralded a new life for figurative art after a period of almost total dominance by Abstract Expressionism.
Wild Dog Seeking Its Shadow, 1997: oil and alkyd on canvas, 90 x 78” Oliveira was a friend of Richard Diebenkorn and the other Bay Area Figurative artists, but he was somewhat younger and his work did not fit exactly into their aesthetic. Oliveira’s approach was more emotional, and more influenced by European painting. He studied with Max Beckman, and admired Edvard Munch, Alberto Giacometti, and Francis Bacon.
Oliveira described his paintings as emotionally charged in themselves, and said he wants to “make a spiritual contribution.” He frequently explored the relationship between people and animals, and sometimes painted figures and landscapes that had magical, or shamanistic, overtones.
STELAE No. 3, 1994: From a series of 18 color monoprints 38-3/4 x 30-1/4” In addition to his painting, Oliveira worked in printmaking throughout this career. He was an accomplished lithographer, and his work in monotype has helped define the process for many curators and artists. He began to work in etching when he did his first project at Crown Point Press in 1994.
COPPER PLATE NUDE II (8), 2001: Color and spit bite aquatins with aquatint 40-1/2 x 31-3/4”, edition 40 His 2001 series, titled Copper Plate Nudes II, builds on two previous projects in which he drew directly on copper plates from a model. In the first of these the figures are almost silhouettes, and in the second they seem to be shadows. The Copper Plate Nudes II, he said, “are meant to be more solid.”
Oliveira’s art is sensual. It appeals to the senses. And in this group of works, the sense of humanity, especially female humanity, is weighty and strong.