Presented by Center for Contemporary Printmaking

Charles Cajori’s works represent a gestural response to reality. Long fascinated with the female body, his figures seem to float in space, hovering effervescently between configuration and chaos. They are so much a part of the space they exist in as to be inseparable from it. The dialogue between space, process and figure is just as fresh and vital today as it was when he first began its exploration in the late 1940’s. Over the last sixty years, he has proven himself to be at once a brilliant draftsman and an extraordinary colorist. While his works are thoroughly a part of Abstract Expressionism, they remain ultimately grounded by the figure. Charles Cajori has had an extraordinary career steeped in the history of 20th century art. He has been lauded by historian-critics Dore Ashton and Irving Sandler and painter-critic Fairfield Porter. More recently, he has received favorable critiques from Ken Johnson in the Times and Mario Naves in the Observer. Charles Cajori was born in Palo Alto, CA in 1921. He was a co-founder of the Tanager Gallery and an associate of the 10th Street School. He has been exhibiting his work continuously since the 1950s. Cajori’s work is represented in public collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum, the Hirshhorn Museum, Walker Art Center, the Weatherspoon Art Museum, the Denver Art Museum, and the National Academy of Design. He has been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts Grant, a Louis Comfort Tiffany Award, and a Fulbright Grant, among others.