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Paul Wonner was an American artist who rose to prominence in the 1950s as an abstract expressionist associated with the Bay Area Figurative Movement. He enjoyed collegial support for his work from originators of the Bay Area Figurative style, including David Park and Richard Diebenkorn. He painted in a brushy manner similar to theirs until the late 1970s, when his style turned crisp, emphasizing bright light and sharp shadows, and he concentrated on still life themes. The Dutch Baroque still life tradition served as a historical source for Wonner, but he typically painted objects from everyday contemporary life. His mature pictures distinctively portray things as separated by almost surrealistically vacant distended spaces. Acclaimed for his distinctive mature style of still life painting, Wonner had numerous solo exhibitions in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. In April 2008, Wonner died of natural causes in his home in San Francisco, California.
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