Ray Ciarrocchi is a New York-based figurative painter. He is married to Sandra Caplan also a painter. Their daughter Maya Ciarrocchi is a video artist.
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Upbringing and education
Ray Ciarrocchi was born Ramon William Ciarrocchi in Chicago, Ill. (August 23, 1933) the son of Italian immigrants from Tuscany and LeMarche. As a child he would often draw and during high school attended classes at the Art Institute of Chicago. It was there that he became aware of painting, particularly the examples of French Impressionism that form a significant part of the museum’s collection. Graduating from high school he enrolled for two years at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts with the idea that he might eventually work as an illustrator. Military service intervened and Ciarrocchi was assigned to three years duty in Tokyo, Japan as an illustrator. He was fortunate in Tokyo to meet and become friends with the writer Oliver Statler, who introduced him on different occasions to Isamu Noguchi and the British ceramist Bernard Leach. Studying Zen painting, attending performances and sketching at the Kabuki Theatre with its splendid color, were influential in Ciarrocchi’s decision to become a painter. After his army discharge Ciarrocchi received a B.F.A., at Washington University, studying painting with Fred Conway and during his last year with guest critic Stephen Pace. Pace, who later became a friend and mentor was a strong influence, imparting among other things, his knowledge of Hans Hoffman’s visual concepts. Ciarrocchi went on to receive an M.F.A. at Boston University studying with David Aaronson. There, he established rapport with fellow students Brice Marden and Kent Floeter. Moving to New York City during 1961, Ciarrocchi continued painting as an abstract expressionist, particularly influenced by DeKooning’s black and white period. He became acquainted with several of the painters who were associated with the Howard Wise Gallery: Edward Dugmore and Ernest Briggs. He received a Fulbright Grant during 1963-64 which made possible a year’s study and independent work in Florence, Italy. Seeing at first hand the work of artists such as Piero della Francesca and the Venetians Giorgione and Veronese, strongly influenced Ciarrocchi’s visual thinking. Living in Fiesole, above Florence, he began to draw and paint from nature, stressing the abstract figuration of the natural forms. The quality of the light of Italy would become an influence that would forever effect his work. His acquaintance with Gregory Gillespie, another Fulbright artist, provided numerous discussions concerning the possibilities of figurative painting. Ciarrocchi, even when working abstractly, had continued to draw from the nude. On returning to New York he was able to draw from life with groups of artists including Diana Kurz, Lois Dodd and Regina Granne. He also established friendships with Jack Tworkov, Hermine Ford , Robert Moskowitz, Lennart Anderson, Sonia Gechtoff and Rackstraw Downes. An important influence shortly after Ciarrocchi’s return from Italy, was the large exhibition of Bonnard’s paintings held at the Acquavella Gallery. Other painters to whom he often returns to study are Vuillard, Fairfield Porter, Edwin Dickinson and Filippo DePisis. During summers spent in Maine, Ciarrocchi began to work and complete each painting directly from nature, which led to the core of his landscape painting. Ciarrocchi now develops his paintings in the studio working from sketches and studies made at various sites.
Career
Ciarrocchi’s first one-person exhibition was with the Tibor DeNagy Gallery during 1971. This was followed by seven other personal exhibitions at the same gallery, the last taking place in 1985. Other personal exhibitions were with the Fischbach Gallery, 1987 and 1989 and with the Rich Perlow Gallery during l993 and l996. Lawrence Campbell, writing in Art News magazine about one of Ciarrocchi’s exhibitions stated, “Ciarrocchi improvises brilliantly on natural textures---the foliage of trees, clouds and flower-bespattered meadows. Continually, the natural edges into the Symbolist, shifting between the seen and the unseen.” Richard Waller in his catalogue essay for “Ray Ciarrocchi- Landscapes 1978-91”, “University of Richmond Museums, writes: “ Ciarrocchi’s landscapes are more about the exquisite moment of being in that place. His landscapes are at once aesthetic and metaphysical, achieving a unity of viewing nature with the transcendent power of that experience.” Ciarrocchi continues to exhibit nationally and abroad. A recent personal exhibition entitled “Seeking the Darkness and the Light-Drawings of Italy”, was held at the University of Richmond, Virginia museums during February 2015.
As a teacher Ciarrocchi has held positions at Pratt Institute, Columbia University, Parsons School of Design, Brooklyn College CUNY and Baruch College CUNY. He was visiting artist at Maryland Institute College of Art and at the University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada.
Ciarrocchi’s paintings, watercolors, drawings and monotypes are in museum and private collections both nationally and abroad. A complete list may be seen on his website www.rayciarrocchi.com. He has been awarded grants from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation 2009 and 2014; the Gottlieb Foundation 1996; Ingram Merrill Foundation 1982 and 1977; Louis Comfort Tiffany Grant 1967; Fulbright Fellowship (Florence, Italy) 1963-64; the MacDowell Colony 1965 and 1962.