Sam Amato
'Sam Amato'
Image courtesy of Will Amato
Sam Amato’s print Repeat image of building was made with Tyler in 1966, at the Gemini Ltd workshop. The print is closely related to Amato’s so-called ‘grid’ paintings of the time in which the artist repeated motifs in a grid arrangement that resembles a film strip. Here a building—the Chrysler Building in New York City—is reproduced across 20 squares, with a background depicting the sky at different times of day featured in each. The structure of the composition echoes the windows of a skyscraper, though these are noticeably absent from Amato’s rendition of the building.
Tyler met Amato through the University of California, Long Beach (UCLA) while working at the Tamarind Lithography Workshop. A respected teacher remembered fondly by generations of students, Amato was a member of the Art Department at UCLA for almost 40 years. He maintained an active practice and program of exhibitions into his retirement through the FIG (First Independent Gallery) in Los Angeles. His late work incorporated a wide array of subjects including myth, nature and images of the Buddha, as well as abstract renderings of houses and chairs.
Emilie Owens
Works in the Kenneth E. Tyler Collection
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(Repeat image of building)
1966
Chronology
1924 Born in New York, New York, United States of America
1950-52 Teaches at Newark Academy of Arts, New Jersey
1952 Receives Bachelor of Fine Arts from Pratt Institute of Art, New York; studies at New School of Social Research, New York
1952-54 Teaches at Albright Art School, Buffalo, New York
1954-73 Professor of Art, University of California, Los Angeles
1957-60 Exhibits at the Frank Perls Gallery, Los Angeles
1959 Solo exhibition, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, California
1966 Solo exhibition, Laguna Art Association, Laguna Beach, California. Produces lithograph, Repeat image of building, at Gemini GEL, Los Angeles
1973 Solo exhibition, Lang Gallery, Pomona College, Claremont, California
1993 Exhibits at First Independent Gallery (FIG), Santa Monica, California
1994 Solo exhibition, Sam Amato: paintings 1992–94, at FIG, Santa Monica, California
1995 Solo exhibition, Sam Amato: recent paintings, at FIG, Santa Monica, California
1996 Solo exhibition, Sam Amato: recent work–images of Buddha, at FIG, Santa Monica, California
2001 Solo exhibition, Sam Amato: bodhisattvas, poets, lohans, at Rio Hondo College, Whittier, California
2003 Solo exhibition, Sam Amato: new work, at FIG, Santa Monica, California
2010 Solo exhibition, Sam Amato: new paintings–meditations on nature, at FIG, Santa Monica, California
2013 Solo exhibition, Sam Amato: selected work, at FIG, Santa Monica, California. Sam Amato died in California
Barbara Delano © Tyler Graphics Ltd; revised Emilie Owens, 2007; revised Julia Greenstreet, 2013
This chronology provides an overview of selected biographical information, major solo and group exhibitions held within the artist's own lifetime.
Further Reading
NATIONAL GALLERY PUBLICATIONS
- Workshop: The Kenneth Tyler Collection, Jane Kinsman (ed.), 2015
