Philip Taaffe

American painter, illustrator, and contemporary visual artist (b. 1955, Elizabeth, New Jersey); based in New York City and West Cornwall, Connecticut. Philip Taaffe works in a range of styles, creating intricate, elaborate, abstract paintings, sometimes compared to "synthetic cubism," and original "lithoscrapes" (oil and mixed media graphics on gampi rice paper). His artworks are presented in public collections at MoMA, the Philadelphia Museum Of Art, the Whitney Museum Of American Art, and Reina Sofía in Madrid, among others. Philip Taaffe studied at Cooper Union college in New York, graduating with his Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1977. His work since the mid-1980s occasionally borrowed images and designs directly from other artists. Taaffe's We Are Not Afraid (1985), for instance, was based on Barnett Newman's "zip" motif from Who's Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue (1966–70). He also reinterpreted the imagery of Bridget Riley in Defiance (86). Philip Taaffe spent several years, from 1988 to 91, living in Naples, Italy and traveled extensively across the Middle East, India, South America and Morocco. He collaborated with Mohammed M'Rabet on Chocolate Creams and Dollars (93) book, translated by Paul Bowles.