Bay Area artist Nathan Oliveira (1928-2010) described himself as an abstract artist whose work had to be “about something.”
For the prolific Oliveira, the “something” is a point of departure for the viewer, not the point of arrival — “evocative” and “intangible” are often used in describing his work. Solitary figures in vague and open landscapes appear frequently in his work. The Oliveira show at Santa Clara’s Triton Museum of Art, “Variations on Form,” spans many decades and mediums.
Oliveira was a leader in what is called the Bay Area Figurative School.*
“I’m not part of the avant-garde, I’m part of the garde that comes afterwards, assimilates, consolidates, refines,” he told Stanford Magazine in 2002.
Oliveira’s work is regularly exhibited around the world, and he has won many awards and honors over the course of his life, including Portugal’s Commander of the Order of Henry the Navigator, awarded to individuals who have expanded Portuguese culture and history.
Some of his most famous work is a series of paintings based on his observation of bird flight, called “The Origin of Flight, Windhover Studies.” In 2013, Stanford built the Windhover Contemplative Center as a home for these paintings to provide a place of rest and meditation for the Stanford community.
Oliveira didn’t come from an artistic family, or even one that particularly appreciated art. His parents were Portuguese immigrants, and Oliveira’s aspirations in life were set no higher than following a skilled trade. His course changed when, after graduating from high school, his school’s principal asked him where he was going to college.
Nathan replied that he wasn’t going to college, according to his son Joe Oliveira, “but that was going to work for a book binder. The principal went to Nathan’s home and told his parents, ‘Nathan needs to go to art school,” and helped him get a scholarship to California College of Arts and Crafts.”
In 1959, Oliveira’s work was chosen for a show at the New York Museum of Modern Art, “New Images of Man,” a show that included Jackson Pollock and Willem De Kooning. The youngest artist in the show, Oliveira’s distinctive style was already clear, as the press release for the 1959 show reveals:
“Oliveira’s faceless figures … travel through space which itself lacks both definition and limitation … not so much the ghosts of humans as they are merely shapes, rapid, volatile emergences brought by the whim of the artist’s brush.”
“Immediately after, he was offered a tenured university position,” said Joe Oli, “and catapulted into a career.”
That career included teaching at UCLA, Cornell and eventually Stanford, where Nathan taught for 34 years.
Growing up with an artist as his father wasn’t different from typical middle-class life, said Joe, but it did offer some unique experiences.
“When kids asked me what my father did, I said, ‘he paints naked women,’” recalled Joe.
Although he grew up in the art world and among artists, Joe didn’t become a visual artist himself. Instead, he pursued music and is an accomplished jazz performer. He has played with the likes of Stan Getz and served as the assistant director of the Stanford Jazz band.
These days, Joe Oliveira’s fulltime job is managing and conserving his father’s artistic legacy. It’s a true labor of love, he says often. Joe Oliveira showed an early aptitude for his future work when, as a teenager, he spent a summer cataloguing his father’s drawings and prints — altogether 12 six-drawer cabinets.
In the early 2000s, he became his father’s fulltime business manager.
“My father said to me, ‘I need you as a manager — I just want to paint,’” Joe Oliveira said. “I had to learn to manage a business, accounting, cataloguing, curating, interfacing with schools, shows, and art dealers.”
Since that time, he’s catalogued all of Nathan’s work and created a website (nathanoliveira.com) with scanned images of Nathan’s artwork for interested collectors and curators.
The Triton show was born from the partnership between the Triton and Pacific Art League in Palo Alto.
“It’s a reinstallation of a 2020 show that closed with the arrival of the COVID pandemic,” Joe Oliveira said. “The Pacific Art League suggested doing the show at the Triton.”
Before the show, Joe didn’t know much about the Triton, but has been pleased with the show and the venue.
“I’m always favorable to regional shows,” he said. “It’s great for my Dad and great for the community. I suggested a show based on ‘windows into figures over time’ and they were very receptive. They were interested in showing a lot of diversity and breadth. They also allowed me to lay out the show. They were very accommodating.”
“Nathan Oliveira: Variations on Form” was on display through April 19. For more information, visit tritonmuseum.org. The Triton’s 60th anniversary gala is coming up on May 3, 2025.
*Figurative art is art based on real world objects, as opposed to abstract art. The Bay Area Figurative School was artists who had rejected post-WWII abstract expressionism.
Other Triton Museum Exhibits:
Santa Clara’s Triton Museum: San José’s Loss, Santa Clara’s Gain
Gabriel Coke Presents Unlimited Imagination at Triton Museum
Artist Katherine Young to be Featured at Triton Museum
