John Saccaro

Art Brokerage: John Saccaro American Artist: b. 1913-1981. John Saccaro (aka. Giovanni Saccaro) was born in San Francisco in 1913 to parents of Italian descent. In his early days as an artist Saccaro painted Regionalist paintings in watercolors. At the early age of 25 Saccaro secured his first one man show at the San Francisco Museum of Art. Starting in 1939 and in the years preceding WWII he worked for the Works Progress Administration (WPA), first in the Easel Section then later in the Murals Section of the Public Works of Art Project (PWAP) in San Francisco and painted murals with Robert McChesney for the Golden Gate International Exposition in 1939. During WWII John Saccaro was drafted into the Army and while stationed in France he painted camouflage on tanks and other US Army vehicles. After the war he returned to San Francisco and enrolled at the California School of Fine Art (CSFA) in 1951. While studying and painting at the CSFA, Saccaro was exposed to the Abstract Expressionist style that was being taught by instructors at the school such as: Clyfford Still, David Park, Richard Diebenkorn, James Budd Dixon, and Mark Rothko. He graduated from CSFA in 1954. After graduating from CSFA, Saccaro would receive much acclaim for his unique abstract style. Quoting from George P. Tomlin's "Saccaro: Sensorist Paintings: Oakland Art Museum 1958" Saccaro describes his paintings as "sensory raids" defining sensorism as an approach that favors "the scrape, slash and violence of the sensory." John Saccaro was an art professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, from 1963 to 1964. John Saccaro died in San Francisco in 1981. Listings wanted.