BIOGRAPHY

Billy Brauer died at home in Warren with his wife, Wendy, and family by his side on February 28, 2019.

Known nationally for his sensual figurative paintings, Billy Brauer grew up in Queens, New York knowing he would be an artist. Brauer attended the School of Visual Arts in New York City, and was a protégé of the renowned surrealist painter Federico Castellon. His first years as an artist were spent working as an illustrator, where Brauer applied his intellect and imagination to progress in his profession. He feels he still uses the design concepts he learned as an illustrator as a painter, manipulating space and form to create a sense of tension and mystery.

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. His work gained 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 Arts Council. Having long harbored the desire to be a serious painter, in 1978 Brauer began 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 intense colors and a finely tuned drawing ability to beautifully render women in narrative yet mysterious scenes. 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."

Valley Reporter Obituary
The Lowe Down: Remembering Bill Brauer: Vermont's painter of women (Article in Rutland Herald)

Statement from the artist...

"I've always been able to draw but I failed high school art. They wanted me to draw tables and chairs but I was already drawing figures...so I flunked.

Thus encouraged, I went on to become a professional artist. I worked as a freelance illustrator in New York and also as a printmaker producing etchings and lithos.

I moved to Vermont in 1969 but soon the limitations of printmaking caused me to rethink my direction. I decided to begin painting, which gave me the opportunity to explore size, color, density and surface.

Going up in size also forced me to change imagery. The small and intricate forms of printmaking did not translate well to larger color pieces. As Renaissance painters did, I pursued my fascination with the human form, taking Renaissance concepts of the figure, and combining them with my contemporary design sense to create my own visions.

Formally, the paintings are about shapes next to shapes and colors next to colors. I love manipulating forms. My work draws inspiration from a variety of sources, including Greek, Roman, and Egyptian mythology and motifs. I use a single light source and a shallow visual depth to create tension and dramatic light and dark patterns. I often use cast shadows, which take on their own presence, adding an air of mystery to the works. In these paintings, something else is happening, just beyond the picture plane; the viewer just gets a hint. I like to create an alluring mood in my paintings that attracts the viewer, and then give them something to hang on to."

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