Bill Brauer

Biography

Known nationally for his sensual figurative paintings, Bill Brauer grew up in Queens, New York knowing from early inspiration that he would be an artist. Brauer attended the School of Visual Arts in New York City and was a protegé of the renowned Federico Castellon. His first years as an artist were spent working as an illustrator, where competition pushed Brauer to apply his intellect and imagination rigorously to his work to out-think other artists of this profession. He feels that in his art he still uses the design concepts he learned as an illustrator.

In the early 1960s, Brauer became involved in printmaking, holding his first major exhibition in 1974 with the Associated American Artists, ‘New Talent in Printmaking’ exhibition. From this starting point, his work gained increasing acclaim and was sought after for exhibition. His work was selected for the permanent collection of the Brooklyn Museum and was featured in the ‘19th Annual Print Exhibition.’ In 1976 he received an individual grant from the Vermont Council of the Arts.

Having long harbored the deep desire to be a serious painter, in 1978 Brauer began for the first time to concentrate exclusively on painting. In the late eighties, his work won mounting success and has since been exhibited extensively across the United States in both solo and group exhibitions.Brauer’s paintings are highly sensual and moody, using deep intense colors and beautifully rendered curves of fabrics or human forms. All works depict women and are often suggestive of a charged and compelling narrative. In an interview with ‘The Sunday Times Argus,’ Brauer says “I love the concept of mystery. I like the idea that something is taking place off the picture plane.”

For twenty-five years, Brauer has taught an art class which now meets at Vermont College, Montpelier. The innumerable drawings he has sketched from these classes eliminate a need for models when he paints. “This way [the paintings] take on their strangeness, their edge,” he says, “because they’re not from models.” He estimates that he produces around twenty-five to thirty paintings a year.

Brauer’s most recent solo exhibitions have been at the Patricia Rovzar Gallery, Washington and The Chase Gallery, Boston. He continues to be one of Vermont’s most successful artists, highly popular with private collectors.