1980s

1980

Participates in a two man show with Rick Hall at the Falkirk Cultural Center, San Rafael, California.

Two smiling men with curly hair, one wearing a yellow striped shirt and the other a white polo, sitting close together with one man's arm around the other's shoulder inside a room with wooden furniture and display shelves in the background.

Paul Harris with Rick Hall, undated, Paul Harris Archives

1981-82

Paul Harris: Sculpture, Certain Pieces, 1958–1980 is on view at the Loch Haven Art Center, Orlando, Florida from October 4 to November 15, 1981 and travels to the Greenville County Museum of Art in Greenville, South Carolina. In the exhibition catalogue essay, Phyllis Diebenkorn writes: “Paul is not a purist. He welcomes reference and allusion. The works have a psychological meaning, literary and theatrical reference, and a kind of painterliness not usually present in sculpture today (nor in painting either). At the same time certain combinations and simplifications bring to mind early Cycladic and Mycenaean [sic] figures. In work completed in the fifties and early sixties this relationship is more direct, but it can be seen, too, in some of the recent figures.” She continues: “Paul Harris’s most recent works are not made of fabric. He has returned to modeling in wax for subsequent casting in bronze. These pieces are simple domestic objects at first glance, and yet not so simple as it turns out. The objects–knives, plates, bottles seem to have an almost human relationship to one another. A knife and fork share a secret intimacy, a teapot reaches out toward its cup, a pear has established tenuous contact with a placemat. These are quiet, elegant pieces, unobtrusive yet powerful. Several of them are in Paul’s house in Bolinas. After a time in that house these pieces begin to exert the same kind of power that the women have on the surround. They are alive and they cannot be ignored.”

Woman Resting, 1979, bronze, 7 x 14 x 14 inches

Installation views of Paul Harris: Still Life, Stanford University Museum of Art in Palo Alto, California, 1982–1983.

Paul Harris: Still Life is on view at the Stanford University Museum of Art in Palo Alto, California from October 28, 1982 to January 2, 1983. The show includes more than twenty bronzes, such as Gallon Jug and Others (1969), Six Bottles (1967), and Bouquet (1968); work on crayon; and pastels. In a review art critic Marian Hare remarks “that the works are innovative while remaining within the traditions of still life. Using typical motifs as fruits, flowers, and kitchen utensils the artist had created refreshingly original figurations . . . Some of the sculptures are made up of still life motifs with implied sexual associations; a fork embraces a knife, a watering can is attached to a vase, a teapot stretches its spot to touch a tiny cup and saucer. Some works convey a mood of tranquility. Others because of their precarious stability introduce an element of tension, a banana on end confronts a bunch of grapes on point, a knife balanced its tip is shielded by an enveloping prow, a sword lowers over a lifted spherical jar.”⁵⁰

Participates in a group show at the Transamerica Building Gallery, San Francisco.

Bob’s Hand, 1980, bronze, 2 x 9 x 5 inches

Teapot and a Cup, 1977, bronze, 6 x 19 x 6.5 inches

Note from Phyllis and Richard Diebenkorn to Paul Harris, January 25, 1983, Paul Harris Archives

1983

Receives a solo exhibition at the Fuller Goldeen Gallery, San Francisco on view from January 11 to February 5.

1984

The 1979 bronze Table Mat and Ripe Pear is included in The Art of Still Life at the Fendrick Gallery, Washington, D.C. The infamous dealer, Barbara Fendrick, “helped introduce the region to the work of luminaries such as Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg, first by selling prints and drawings . . . then by opening an elegant Georgetown gallery that became a linchpin of the D.C. art scene for two decades.” In a review of the show in The Washington Post, Jo Ann Lewis, writes that “this sequel to last year's contemporary still-life survey . . . includes a few well-known names—notably William Bailey (represented by a new etching) and illusionist painter Paul Sarkisian. But most of the others are either entirely new (such as draftsman Tim O'Kane from Charlottesville) or new to Washington. Among the latter are three illusionist sculptors whose works provide the highlights of this show. There is, for instance, a small cast bronze depicting a lifelike by Paul Harris of San Francisco, along with a shriveled grapefruit half on a plate.”

Pas d’Une is included in the touring California Bookworks: The Last Five Years, curated by critic and librarian Joan Hugo and on view at Otis Art Institute, Los Angeles and Parsons School of Design, New York City.

1985

Participates in a group show at the William Sawyer Gallery, San Francisco. He will show again with the gallery in 1986.

1987

Exhibits bronze sculptures in the group show Six From the San Francisco Area at the Iannetti-Lanzone Gallery, San Francisco.

Shows new work with Rick Hall, a former student, and Christian Van Deusen at the William Sawyer Gallery, San Francisco.

1988

Works at Shidoni Foundry, Tesuque, New Mexico on bronze sculptures. He will return to the foundry in 1996 and 1998.

Participates in group shows at the Memorial Union Art Gallery, University of California at Davis and at the Civic Arts Gallery, Walnut Creek, California.

  • ⁵⁰Marian Hare, “Innovative one artist show at Stanford Museum,” [publication unknown], n.d.

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