Peter Agostini
American, 1913 - 1993
SchoolAbstract Expressionist
BiographyFrom New York City, Peter Agostini, a second generation Abstract Expressionist, was a sculptor who early in his career worked primarily in plaster over various armatures with balloon-like spheres that anticipated Pop Art imagery in his exploration of the every-day world. He also produced plaster forms, "frozen from life" and molded from found objects such as squeezed inner tubes piled on top of each other, pillows, paper, thin sheets of metal and clotheslines. Many of his works suggested turbulent themes such as hurricanes and action horses and riders. In the 1970s, he turned to figure pieces in clay and also did watercolors and mono-prints.Peter Agostini spent a year at the Leonardo da Vinci School of Art in New York City, a year at the University of Mexico (1948) and that year also studied mural painting at San Miguel de Allende. The next year he went to Paris, attending the Atelier Fernand Leger.
His early work was influenced by Elie Nadelman and Alberto Giacometti, but by the 1950s, he had his own distinct style which was humorous and surrealistic.
During the 1930s he worked as an artist for the Works Progress Administration, and for the Office of War Information, teaching camouflage to American soldiers. In 1964, he received a Brandeis University Creative Arts Award and the same year exhibited at the Whitney Museum Annual and at the Sao Paulo Bienal. His career included teaching at the Art Students League, Columbia University in 1961 and Wagner College in 1968, and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in the 1970s.
Person TypeIndividual
French, 1824 - 1898
