WPA Art Inventory Project

In 1941 Cano Pace, who lived in Waterbury, Connecticut, sculpted a plaster statue entitled, Leaping Frogs.

Source: WPA Artist’s Work Card.

Works of Art Listed in CT Archives’ database from Cano Pace:

Willard Paddock was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1873. He attended public grammar schools and a year and a half of high school. He studied art at the School of Fine Arts at Pratt Institute, and at the Ecole de Beaux Arts and the Academy Collarossi, both in Paris. At various times in his life Paddock studied in Florence, Rome, and Naples. In 1904 Paddock began visiting  Connecticut, and in 1910 he and the painter Francis Von Der Lancken moved to New Milford and set up studios. By the 1930’s Paddock was living in Kent. Over the years he had taught drawing, modeling, and anatomy at the Pratt Institute. During the WPA Federal Arts Project he painted The Outlook of Education mural at the New Milford School, modeled a bust of Roger Sherman for a memorial, and painted around 25 landscapes. Paddock died in Kent in 1956.

Sources: WPA Artist’s Work Card; WPA Biography; Who Was Who in American Art (1985), p. 465; Fielding’s Dictionary of American Painters, p. 689; AskART; “New Milford”; see Frank von der Lancken’s 1904 portrait of Paddock; “Kent Art Exhibition To Open on August 19,” Hartford Courant, August 2, 1933;New York Times: “60 Women Compete in Art Exhibition,” March 21, 1926; Lloyd Goodrich, “A Round of Galleries,” April 7, 1929; Lloyd Goodrich, “Further Comment on the Art Exhibitions of the Week,” April 14, 1929; “Article 13—No Title,” April 21, 1929; “The Salmagundi Club,” June 2, 1929; Edward A. Jewell, “Art,” February 12, 1931; “Sketching Merry del Val,” June 7, 1908; “Sculptor Has Operation,” June 8, 1934.

Works of Art Listed in CT Archives’ database from Willard Paddock:

Delos Palmer was born in 1890. He worked for the WPA Federal Arts Project starting in 1936. Prior to that, he had worked for the Public Works of Art Project. He completed three easel works and two murals for the WPA. He taught several art classes at Burdick Jr. High School. His murals were allocated to Willard School in Stamford, Connecticut. He left the WPA to pursue a career in portrait painting. Palmer died of a heart attack at his home in Stamford, Connecticut in 1960.

Sources: WPA Artist’s Work Card; Obituary, New York Times, May 5, 1960.

Works of Art Listed in CT Archives’ database from Delos Palmer:

Martin Partyka was born in New Britain, Connecticut in 1907 or 1908. He completed high school and then studied art and architectural engineering at the Pratt Institute from 1927-1930. He later wrote that Arthur Gupthill and Ernest Watson were influential teachers. Partyka taught mechanical and architectural drawing at evening school. From 1936-1940 he worked on the Index of American Design while employed by the WPA, specializing in wallpaper renderings. Partyka died in 1954.

Sources:  WPA Artist’s Work Card; WPA Biography; Social Security Death Index; Erwin O. Christensen, The Index of American Design (National Gallery of Art, 1950), p. 65, 200.

Works of Art Listed in CT Archives’ database from Martin Partyka:

Alfred Parys was born in Rockville, Connecticut in 1913. He lived for over forty years in New Britain and the last fifteen years of his life in Newington. For the WPA Federal Arts Project, he was assigned to the Index of American Design under the supervision of John Matulis. In 1941 Matulis, Martha Elliot, and Parys gained some national renown when Franklin Delano Roosevelt exhibited in his library three of the plates they completed for the Index. In addition to his art, Parys collected antiques. Some of his art work was exhibited at Yale University and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. For a time he worked for Pratt and Whitney Aircraft’s North Haven plant, and he was a former vice president of Production Services Mfg. Co. of Newington. He was a life member of Sturbridge Village and belonged to the Art League of New Britain. Parys died at New Britain General Hospital at the age of 56.

Sources: WPA Artist’s Work Card; Social Security Death Index;Hartford Courant: “3 State Artists Have Work in Hyde Park Show,” September 13, 1941; “Alfred Parys Dies; Was Noted Artist,” December 1, 1969; WPA Federal Arts Project Newsletter, September 1938; Edwin O. Christensen, The Index of American Design, (National Gallery of Art, 1950), pp.192, 207;www.nga.gov/collection/gallery/iadpot/iadpot-18302.html.

Works of Art Listed in CT Archives’ database from Alfred Parys:

Phillip Pavia was one of the founders of the New York School of abstract expressionism, often called the first “American” style of art. He was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut in 1912, the son of a stone cutter and carver. He attended the Yale School of Fine Arts, dropped out, and then went to New York City to attend classes at the Art Student League. At the League, Pavia met Jackson Pollack and Arshile Gorky, the latter of whom introduced him to the works of Picasso. In the 1930’s he went to Paris and “soaked up” the importance of the avant garde from the artist Henry Miller. He rejected surrealism as “unsuited to the American Character.” (“Phillip Pavia,” Times Online)  He returned to the United States and from 1936-37 worked for the WPA Federal Arts Project in Connecticut, finishing seven pieces of sculpture. He returned to New York City in 1938 and lived there during the Second World War. The end of the war began a tumultuous period for the arts in the city. Pavia himself had read writer William James and concluded that art was “an inner reflection of the direct and tactile experiences of life.” (Ben Sisario, NY Times)  James also rejected surrealism.

In 1947 he founded an informal organization that later became known asThe Club, a group of artists including Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollack, and other artists he had met during the WPA. They felt strongly about new artistic styles and other issues and frankly expressed their opinions. Pavia wanted to recreate the give and take between artists that he had found in the cafes on the Left Bank of Paris in New York City. He saw his role as stirring up the pot of debates and intellectual differences at meetings. As reporter Kay Larson wrote in the New York Times,

“The Club was home to a rampantly individual generation of irascibles who thought ideas were worth fighting for, and who brandished egos like closed fists. The meetings healed the isolation of the studio and spread combustible enthusiasms through a small and impassioned community on the verge of important discoveries.”

These artists would pioneer the art form of abstract expressionism.

In 1955 Pavia left the Club and started a newsletter entitled It Is. He set up lecture series which included artist colleagues and “writers, composers, critics, dealers, poets and philosophers” such as Thomas Hess, Harold Rosenberg, Hannah Arendt, James Campbell, Sydney Janis, E.E. Cummings, John Cage, and many others. It is not possible in this entry to convey the energy and free thinking of the intellectual ferment in New York City during the late 1940’s and 1950’s.

For the rest of his life, Pavia created sculpture and exhibited his work in one person and group shows in the New York City. Toward the end of his life, he was recognized by art historians as one of the important founders of abstract expressionism. Pavia died in New York at the age of 94.

Sources:  WPA Artist’s Work Card; AskART; Obituaries: Ben Sisario, “Phillip Pavia, 94, an Avant-Garde Sculptor, Is Dead,” New York Times, April 15, 2005; “Philip Pavia, 94; N.Y. Sculptor Known for Large-Scale Works,” Los Angeles Times, April 16, 2005, at www.articles.latimes.com/2005/apr/16/local/me-passings16.1;  Phong Bui, “A Tribute to Philip Pavia (1912-2005),” The Brooklyn Rail; Critical Perspectives on Arts, Politics and Culture, December 2005/January 2006 at www.brooklynrail.org/2005/12/art/a-tribute-to-philip-pavia-1912-2005. [The following are cited on account of their information about Phillip Pavia and background on the founding of the New York School of Abstract Expressionism.] Newspaper Articles:  “What Is?” Time, August 10, 1959, at www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,811230,00.html; “A Letter to the New York Times,” New York Times, February 26, 1961; Brian O’Doherty, “Art: Four Sculptors Manipulate Third Dimension,” New York Times, April 24, 1961; Marylin Stout, “Sculptors Chip Away At Vermont En Masse,”; “Marble Is Sculptors’ Draw,” Hartford Courant, August 18, 1968; J. Scott Craig, “Bold Carvings in Vermont,” Hartford Courant, November 3, 1968; Richard Tourangeau, “Silvermine ‘School-In’ Show To Feature Rock, Jug Music,” Hartford Courant, December 13, 1968; James R. Mellow, “Visual Arts Gallery Promises Much,” New York Times, November 17, 1973; Sally Bedell, “WNET’s Board Passes A ‘Barebones’ Budget,” New York Times, June 24, 1982; John Russell, “Art: Marden on Marble, on Canvas And On Paper; [Review],” New York Times, November 12, 1982; Grace Glueck, “Critic’s Notebook; Developers Play Dress Up With Art,” New York Times, October 20, 1983; John Russell, “A Rare Opportunity To See Giacometti By The Dozen; [Review],” New York Times, September 27, 1985; Michael Brenson, “Art: Works by Gourfain at Brooklyn Museum, New York Times, April 3, 1987; Phyllis Braff, “An Artist’s Eye Behind the Lens,”New York Times, October 26, 1986; Roberta Smith, “Reviews/Television; Robert Motherwell’s Achievements,” New York Times, August 26, 1991; Vivien Raynor, “Art; Sculpture Show Fills the Housatonic Museum’s New Gallery; [Review],” New York Times, January 12, 1992; Carol Strickland, “For Vicente, ’There’s No End’ to Maturing,” New York Times, April 26, 1992; Carole Vogel, “Inside Art,” New York Times, July 23, 1993; Carol Vogel, “Settlement In Lawsuit Against De Kooning,” New York Times, October 7, 1993; Carol Strickland, “Shining a Light on the Other de Kooning,” New York Times, November 21, 1993; Joan Ullman, “Half a Century’s Softball, Celebrity and Silliness,” New York Times, August 23, 1998; Phyllis Braff, “Madrid Museum Gives Bridgehamptonite a Room of His Own,”New York Times, March 21, 1999; Kay Larson, “ART/ARCHITECTURE; The Art Was Abstract, the Memories Are Concrete,” New York Times, December 15, 2002; Ben Sisario and Joel Topick, “Who Pocketed 3 Hunks of Bronze?” New York Times, March 26, 2005; “Pavia’s Archive of American Abstract Expressionism Acquired by Emory,” Press Release, Emory University, April 20, 2005; Rachel Youens, “Uptown Gallery Revisits Ninth St. Exhibit,” The Villager, Vol. 76, Number 6 (June 28-July 4, 2006); “Philip Pavia” by Andrew Wielawski,ArtBlogs, August 4, 2006; Helen A. Harrison, “Club Without Walls: Selections From the Journals of Philip Pavia,” The East Hampton Star, March 24, 2007.

Works of Art Listed in CT Archives’ database from Phillip Pavia:

In 1936 and 1937 Fred Peterson completed fifteen works for the Index of American Design. He was living in Bridgeport, Connecticut at that time. Nothing else is known about him.

Source: WPA Artist’s Work Card.

Works of Art Listed in CT Archives’ database from Fred Peterson:

James Arlin Pollock worked for the WPA in 1941 while he was living in Essex, Connecticut and was a member of the Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts. He completed six landscape paintings. Nothing else is known about him.

Source: WPA Artist’s Work Card.

Works of Art Listed in CT Archives’ database from James Pollock:

Vincent Popolizio was born in 1914 in New Haven, Connecticut. He attended New Haven Public School and went on to attend the Yale School of Fine Arts where he received his Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1937. Popolizio was assigned to the WPA Federal Arts Project in 1939, working on the WPA Silk Screen Poster Project before being assigned to the Art Project. Under the WPA he completed 25 easel works, mainly watercolors. After the WPA he painted in the abstract style and exhibited his paintings in New York City and Connecticut. Popolizio’s date of death is unknown, though the Social Security Death Index suggests that he may have died in 2006.

Sources: WPA Artist’s Work Card; WPA Biography; Social Security Death Index; “Varied Art Shows Listed This Week,” New York Times, February 16, 1953; “Artists Here Hold To Middle Ground,” New York Times, February 20, 1953; “Museum to Mark 25^th Anniversary,” New York Times, October 17, 1954.

Works of Art Listed in CT Archives’ database from Vincent Popolizio: