Paul Brach (1924-2007)

Born in New York, Paul Brach propelled American art forward through his own contributions as an Abstract Expressionist, Minimalist, art educator, and valued mentor. Brach grew up riding horses and working on ranches, experiences that influenced his work throughout his career. While studying at the University of Iowa under Grant Wood, Brach was called to the military and served in the U.S. Army as an infantryman for three years during World War II. After completing his formal art education and his first teaching experience in the Midwest, Brach returned to New York with his wife, the artist Miriam Schapiro.

Brach frequented the notorious Cedar Bar and quickly became associated with second-generation Abstract Expressionism, both socially and through his own interpretation of painterly abstraction.

In 1957, Leo Castelli opened his famed gallery at 4 East 77th Street on the Upper East Side. Brach was the third artist to enjoy a solo exhibition at Castelli Gallery, which ran from April to May of 1957. For the better part of the next decade, Brach would show with many of the artists who would come to be known as titans of the American post-war era: Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, Morris Louis, Robert Rauschenberg, and many others.

In 1967, Brach moved to San Diego, accepting the offer to be chairman of the new art department at the University of California San Diego. Two years later, Brach moved on to the California Institute of Arts in Los Angeles, becoming the first dean of their art school. Integral to the program, Brach assembled an incredible faculty, which included Allan Kaprow, Nam June Paik, and Miriam Schapiro, while also fostering an environment in which artists like David Salle, Eric Fischl, and Jack Bloom could develop and flourish. Along with the educational renaissance Brach was leading, his studio practice evolved toward minimalism, with his paintings beginning to favor subtle palettes and quiet compositions.

In 1975, Brach and Schapiro returned to New York where he assumed the directorship of the Arts Division at Fordham University. Some years later, Brach eschewed academia in favor of a studio practice, which he maintained for the rest of his life.

Brach showed with various galleries until 1998, when he and Schapiro permanently relocated to East Hampton, where they remained until his death in 2007. Brach's work can be found in many public and private collections worldwide, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Amon Carter Museum of Art, and the Smithsonian, among others.

Source: Eric Firestone Gallery