Celebrating100 Years of Paul Harris
SCROLL TO EXPLORE ↓
01 / About
A century after his birth, Paul Harris (1925–2018) remains an artist who defied categories. From masks to string, from cloth figures to bronze still lifes, he worked with humor, invention, and a restless curiosity. This centennial celebration invites you to explore his legacy through new scholarship, essays, and a renewed look at the remarkable body of work he left behind.
Somehow Paul Harris’s work is about all these. His life-size figures remind one of poems—reflecting experiences of life, yet not representing them.
—Suzanne Foley, San Francisco Museum of Art, 1972
“
Is sculpture about volume or surface? About object or subject?
He began with dance, moved through drawing, and found sculpture at the University of New Mexico—a medium vast enough for a lifetime of invention.
Harris shaped six decades of art across fabric, crayon, plaster, bronze, and beyond.
Lorem Ipsum, 1985
02 / Work
For Harris, touch mattered as much as sight. Cloth, string, plaster, and bronze each carried their own weight and texture, and he leaned into those qualities—making sculpture that feels as much as it looks.
Exhibition catalogue, Anatomy in Fabric,
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1973
“The figures of Paul Harris have a sense of being at once illusory and real. They seem to be suspended in a dreamy private world which has assumed a tangible form. The tone is puzzling as one tries to decide whether they are humorous, satirical, or surreal.”
1960-1970: Experiment and Expansion
“By changing the way things look, Paul Harris, the madman uphhoster, makes you look at the way things feel. You ‘see’ how it feels to be at ease in an easy chair… this gentle melting sensation is what is so disturbing and subtle about his beautiful new works.”
—John Perrea, Village Voice, 1967
03 / Essays
Six essays, six perspectives.The following essays bring new scholarship to Paul Harris’s life and legacy. They place his work in dialogue with art history, cultural history, and the deeply personal narratives that shaped his career.
Essay No. 1
Self Portraits
The painting of a self-portrait requires an inevitable inner journey. The piece is done by a back and forth between the paper and the mirror. As objective as an artist can be, it is his own face, his own eyes, his own depth of knowledge that stares back at him. The inner journey may also be a call and response from the artist to the artist-to-be, as is the case with all of the early Paul Harris pieces…
-
Essay No.2
Habitasse platea dictumst. Suspendisse bibendum in hac. -
Essay No.3
In hac habitasse dictumst. Suspendisse bibendum. -
Essay No.4
In habitasse platea dictumst. Suspendisse bibendum. -
Essay No.5
In habitasse platea dictumst. Suspendisse bibendum. -
Essay No.6
In hac platea dictumst. Suspendisse bibendum.
“
Curabitur fringilla, nibh nec vestibulum dictum. Integer lacinia, elit nec.
04 / Chronology
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Curabitur fringilla, nibh nec vestibulum dictum, orci eros gravida metus, et iaculis nunc arcu nec mauris. Integer lacinia, elit nec facilisis fermentum, mi odio.
1936
Curabitur fringilla, nibh nec vestibulum dictum, orci eros gravida metus, et iaculis nunc arcu mauris. Integer lacinia, elit nec.
1945
Curabitur fringilla, nibh nec vestibulum dictum, orci eros gravida metus, et iaculis nunc arcu mauris. Integer lacinia, elit nec.
1985
Curabitur fringilla, nibh nec vestibulum dictum, orci eros gravida metus, et iaculis nunc arcu mauris. Integer lacinia, elit nec.
2003
Curabitur fringilla, nibh nec vestibulum dictum, orci eros gravida metus, et iaculis nunc arcu mauris. Integer lacinia, elit nec.
2016
Curabitur fringilla, nibh nec vestibulum dictum, orci eros gravida metus, et iaculis nunc arcu mauris. Integer lacinia, elit nec.
05 / News & Events
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Curabitur fringilla, nibh nec vestibulum dictum, orci eros gravida metus, et iaculis nunc arcu nec mauris. Integer lacinia, elit nec facilisis fermentum, mi odio.
Join Us.
It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.
