Philip Taaffe

Overview

I'm not so interested in the effort that it takes to have a self-promotional outlook. I believe in being quiet and making my work and just trying to make discoveries and let the painting evolve.

Stimulated by his travels around the world, the American artist Philip Taaffe, creates large colorful paintings incorporating enigmatic symbolism inspired by different cultures.

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Biography

In my own artistic development, I see myself as moving forward but constantly looking at material I have visited in the past, and coming to terms with that, or finding new ways to allow that to come around again, to enter the works in unanticipated ways. It’s this circular thinking, always moving forward, but as a wheel moves forward, as it rotates, it comes back around again.

Philip Taaffe was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey in 1955. He studied at the Cooper Union in New York, gaining a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1977. Taaffe lived for several years in Naples and traveled widely in the Middle East, India, South America, and Morocco (where he collaborated with Mohammed Mrabet on the book Chocolate Creams and Dollars). He is best known for his process-based abstractions, blending iconography, design, and art-historical motifs from multiple cultures to create densely patterned works. An admirer of Matisse’s cut-outs and of Synthetic Cubism, Taaffe borrows works and designs both by well-known artists and...

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Works

Philip Taaffe
Large panel with Row Ornament, 2012
Mixed Media on wood
61 x 94 cm
24 1/16 x 37 1/16 in
Philip Taaffe
Port Curtis, 2011
mixed media on canvas
154 x 201.4 cm
60 10/16 x 79 4/16 in
Philip Taaffe
Study for Medallion Window, 2011
Mixed Media on linen
130 x 203 x 4 cm
51 2/16 x 79 14/16 x 1 9/16 in
Philip Taaffe
Sigiri Totem II, 2011
mixed media/canvas
229 x 160 x 4 cm
90 2/16 x 62 15/16 x 1 9/16 in
Philip Taaffe
Tabriz, 2010
Mixed media on linen
189 x 219 x 4 cm
74 6/16 x 86 3/16 x 1 9/16 in
Philip Taaffe
Biolumen, 2000
mixed technique on canvas
167 x 143 cm
65 11/16 x 56 4/16 in
Philip Taaffe
Untitled, 1998
oil on canvas
70 x 88 cm
27 8/16 x 34 10/16 in
Philip Taaffe
Signal, 1986
oil on canvas
152.5 x 152.5 x 3.9 cm
60 1/16 x 60 1/16 x 1 8/16 in
framed: 156.5 x 156.5 x 5.5 cm
Philip Taaffe
Crucifixion, 1985
Acrylic on canvas
152.5 x 152.5 x 3.9 cm
60 1/16 x 60 1/16 x 1 8/16 in
Framing Dimensions: 156.5 x 156.5 x 5.5 cm