Background
Nathan Oliveira was born on December 19, 1928 in Oakland, California, United States.
136 Irving Street Cambridge, MA 02138, United States
American Academy of Arts & Sciences
600 32nd Avenue San Francisco, California 94121, United States
George Washington High School
5212 Broadway, Oakland, CA 94618, United States
California College of the Arts
901 Ames Ave, Milpitas, CA 95035, United States
Humane Society Silicon Valley
633 West 155 Street, New York City, NY 10032, United States
American Academy of Arts and Letters
1083 5th Ave, New York City, NY 10128, United States
National Academy of Design
450 Serra Mall, Stanford, CA 94305, United States
Stanford University
Nathan Oliveira was born on December 19, 1928 in Oakland, California, United States.
Initially, Nathan attended George Washington High School in San Francisco. Later, he entered California College of the Arts in Oakland, graduating with Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1951. The following year, he got Master of Fine Arts degree at the same college. Also, while studying at California College of the Arts, Nathan took an eight-week summer course in painting at Mills College under the tutelage of German Expressionist Max Beckmann.
In 1968, he received Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from California College of the Arts, and in 1996, Nathan got Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from San Francisco Art Institute.
Since the late 1950's, Oliveira held numerous solo exhibitions and took part in many group exhibitions at important museums and galleries worldwide. During a short period from 1952 to 1953, he taught at California College of Arts and Crafts (present-day California College of the Arts) in Oakland. In 1955, he returned to the college, where he held a post of a teacher until 1956. Some time later, in 1964, Nathan was appointed a Professor of Studio Art at Stanford University, where he remained till 1996.
During the 1990's, Oliveira worked on a series of paintings of catenary curves, based on observation of the flight of birds, including kestrels, that hovered outside the windows of his studio in the Stanford Hills. This series was named the "Windhover" series by Oliveira's friend, a poet Desmond Egan, who detected parallels between the paintings and the poem "The Windhover", written by Gerard Manley Hopkins.
In 2002, "The Art of Nathan Oliveira", a major traveling retrospective of Oliveira's work was organized by the San Jose Museum of Art. During his lifetime Oliveira made notable works in a huge range of media, including oil paintings, acrylic paintings on paper, drawings in ink, charcoal and pencil, lithographs, etchings, posters, sculptures in clay, wax and bronze.
Man with a Hat, Cane and Glove
Untitled, Standing Figure
Duccio’s Dream
For Lotte
Imi
Standing Figure
Figure II
The Great Bird
Untitled
Battle of Little Big Horn
Death of an Ant
Untitled
Beauty and the Beast
Untitled
Standing Figure with Hands on Belt
The Silent Runner
Imi #73
Hawk
Stelae #17
Golden Head
Head
Nineteen Twenty-Nine
Blue Head
Adolescent by the Bed
Woman Standing in Open Box
Seated Man with Dog
For Manolete
Couple with Red
Untitled Female Nude
Head Shapes
Standing Woman
Running Dog
Quotations:
"Though I have considerable interest in Europe and in traveling, I am most content with simply working and allowing the world that I'm creating to unfold before my eyes."
"I had the desire to paint the figure without actually painting the figure."
"Figures must have their own light. It wasn't light that struck the figure in a certain way - the light, the luminosity of white, was in the figure. It emanated from the paint itself."
"You're sitting there with your muse and your muse is telling you something and you're following it, and you end up the next day looking at it and thinking, 'What the hell was the muse saying to me?'"
"If a figure doesn't look back at you, you forget it."
Nathan Oliveira married Ramona Christensen in 1951. Their marriage produced three children — Joe, Lisa and Gina.