PAUL RESIKA b. 1928, New York, NY When he was 9, Paul Resika began taking painting lessons, encouraged by his Russian-immigrant mother; he
Massachusetts. Over the years, he has also spent time in
studied with Sol Wilson when he was 12 and, from 1947
France, Mexico, Jamaica, and Maine, focusing on partic-
to 1950, he studied in Provincetown, Massachusetts, with
ular motifs such as the waterfront buildings of Province-
Hans Hofmann, eventually becoming Hofmann’s studio
town or a family home in Provence, and responding to
assistant. At 19, Resika had his first solo exhibition of
the specifics of place in his work.
paintings at the George Dix Gallery on Madison Avenue in New York City.
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Resika was a founding member of Provincetown’s Long Point Gallery. He credits Berta Walker for contributing
Resika traveled to Europe, settling in Venice for two years
greatly to his success, since she first began exhibiting
and studying independently, a self-imposed apprentice-
and selling his work in 1984 as Founding Director of the
ship to the Old Masters that enriched, without cancelling
Graham Modern Gallery in New York. Resika’s work can
out, the approach to form and structure that he absorbed
be found in the collections of The Metropolitan Museum
from Hofmann. He returned to the United States in
of Art and the Museum of Modern Art, New York City,
1954. In 1958, he began to paint from observation out-
and the National Museum of American Art, Washington,
doors, and this remains the foundation of his work, even
DC, as well as in numerous private collections. The recip-
though memory also plays a role. Since 1964, Resika has
ient of many awards, he is represented by Bookstein Proj-
spent winters in New York and summers on Cape Cod in
ects, New York.
