John M. Saccaro (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 U.S. 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.

Museums:
Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA
M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, CA
Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach, CA
Oakland Art Museum, Oakland, CA
Palm Springs Art Museum, Palm Springs, CA
Pasadena Art Museum, Pasadena, CA
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
The Chazen (Elvehjem) Museum of Art, Madison, WI
Triton Museum, Santa Clara, CA

Exhibitions:
1996  San Francisco Museum of Modern Art San Francisco, CA
1990  Carlson Gallery San Francisco, CA
1981  Museo Italo Americano San Francisco, CA
1973  Oakland Museum Oakland, CA
1963  California Palace Legion Honor San Francisco, CA
1962  California Palace Legion Honor San Francisco, CA
1962  Amon Carter Museum Ft. Worth, TX
1962  University Art Gallery Palo Alto, CA
1962  San Francisco Museum of Modern Art San Francisco, CA
1962  Bolles Gallery New York, NY
1960  San Francisco Museum of Art San Francisco, CA
1959  San Francisco Museum of Art San Francisco, CA
1960  M.H. de Young Memorial Mus. San Francisco, CA
1960  Denver Art Museum Denver, CO
1959  San Francisco Museum of Art San Francisco, CA
1959  Corcoran Gallery Arts Biennials Washington, D.C.
1957  Denver Art Museum Denver, CO
1958  Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Richmond, VA
1958  Oakland Art Museum Oakland, CA
1957  Corcoran Gallery Arts Biennials Washington, D.C
1956  3rd Biennial Museum of Modern Art San Paolo, Brazil
1956  Corcoran Gallery Arts Biennials Washington, D.C
1956  3rd Biennial Museum of Modern Art San Paolo, Brazil
1956  M.H. de Young Memorial Mus. San Francisco, CA
1955  Corcoran Gallery Arts Biennials Washington, D.C
1955  3rd Biennial Museum of Modern Art San Paolo, Brazil
1955  Carnegie International Pittsburgh, PA
1954  Oakland Museum of Art Oakland, CA
1946  M.H. de Young Memorial Mus. San Francisco, CA
1942  San Francisco Museum of Modern Art San Francisco, CA
1942  Art Insitute of Chicago Chicago
1941  San Francisco Museum of Modern Art San Francisco, CA
1940  San Francisco Museum of Modern Art San Francisco, CA
1939  San Francisco Museum of Modern Art San Francisco, CA
1939  San Francisco Museum of Art San Francisco, CA
1939  Art Insitute of Chicago, Chicago, IL

Literature:
2005  Davenport, Ray.  Davenport’s Art Reference:The Gold Edition
2005  AskART.com Inc. – Dunbier, Lonnie Pierson (Editor). The Artists Bluebook: 34,000 North American Artists to March 2005
2004  Landauer, Susan.  San Francisco and Second Wave: The Blair Collection of Bay Area Abstract Expressionism
2003  Herskovic, Marika (editor). American Abstract Expressionism of the 1950s: An Illustrated Survey
2002  Hughes, Edan Milton. Artists in California: 1786-1940
2002  McClelland, Gordon T; Jay T. Last.  California Watercolors 1850-1970, An Illustrated History & Biographical Dictionary
1999  Falk, Peter Hastings (Editor).  Who Was Who in American Art, 1564-1975
1997  Burgard, Timothy Anglin.  Bay Area Art From Morgan Flagg Collection
1996  Landauer, Susan.   The San Francisco School of Abstract Expressionism
1993  Soria, Regina    American Artists of Italian Heritage / 1776-1945
1990  Falk, Peter Hastings (Editor).   The Annual Exhibition Record of the Art Institute of Chicago
1989  Hughes, Edan Milton.  Artists in California, 1786-1940                    
1985  DuPont, Diana, K Holland.  San Francisco Museum of Modern Art   Paintings and Sculpture Collection
1985  Falk, Peter Hastings (Editor).  Who Was Who in American Art: Artists Active Between 1898-1947
1985  Albright, Thomas.  Art in the San Francisco Bay Area 1945-1980 / An Illustrated History
1984  Orr-Cahill, Christina.  The Art of California Selected Works/ Oakland Museum
1976  San Francisco Museum Modern Art. Painting & Sculpture in California: The Modern Era
1975  Editor, Smithsonian.  Smithsonian Archives of American Art: Checklist of the Collection
1973  McChesney, Mary Fuller.  A Period of Exploration: San Francisco 1945-1950
1958  Art Bank of the SFAA San Francisco Art Association. Painting and Sculpture (in)  87
1956  Long Beach Muni Art Center.  California Painting 40 Painters
1935  Mallett, Daniel Trowbridge.  Index of Artists: International-Biographical

Sources:
Landauer, Susan. The San Francisco School of Abstract Expressionism
David Carlson, Carlson Gallery, Rancho Mirage, CA.
askART.com
artnet.com

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