Paul Thek: November 2, 1933-August 10, 1988

Biography

(from the Paul Thek Project, accessed December 16, 2010 from http://www.ptproject.net/publ/biography.php)

This is a work in progress. Details of Paul Thek's biography are added constantly. See references and sources at the bottom of the page.

1933-1951 Paul Thek is born in Brooklyn, New York, as one of four children of parents of German and Irish ancestry on November 2. He is baptised George Joseph. Aged 7 the family moves to Floral Park Bellrose, Long Island. Thek starts to draw extensively when he is 13, early drawings date from the 1947s.

1950 Thek might also have followed courses at the Arts Students League in New York and the Pratt Institute of Arts in Brooklyn (RD, p. 185. An evidence for this fact could not have been found by PW, see p. 34).

1951-1954 Thek moves to Manhattan in 1951 and begins with his studies at the Cooper Union of Arts. At Cooper Union he befriends the painter Joseph Raphael, the photographer Peter Hujar and Marion Greenstone. Among his friends were also Eva Hesse, Linda Rosencrantz and the later art critic Gene Swenson (PW, p. 32). One of Thek’s teachers was the painter Morris Kantor (1896-1974) (PW, p. 38). At Cooper Union Thek makes portraits and nude drawings and small paintings often recalling Matisse and Picasso. Theks student’s work does not reflect the contemporary New York art scene (PW, p. 54). He creates set designs for the student theatre and several fashion illustrations (PW, p. 90/RD, p. 185). He visits Cherry Grove, Fire Islands, for the first time (RD, p. 185). In 1954 Thek leaves Cooper Union. It is not surely documented whether Thek has taken his exams as he falls ill with pneumonia.

1954-58 Thek moves to Miami, Florida where he meets Peter Harvey and Charles Shuts. He stays in Florida from end of 1954 until May 1955. In the summer he works as a waiter on the island of Nantucket. Peter Harvey asks for his assistance in a theatre play in Matunuck, Rhode Island. Together they create the set design. In 1956 Thek applies for a job as set designer in New York. Among their friends are actress Althea Murphy, composer Theodore Newman and writer Tennesse Williams. Peter Harvey points out the work of Robert Graves to Thek (PW, p. 59-62). In New York, Thek befriends the artist Ann Wilson (RD, p. 185).

1955, July By July 1955 Thek renames himself Paul, apparently due to an artistic new beginning and because he also wants to distance himself to his father George. He writes to his friend Peter Harvey: “Let me tell you who I am George Joseph Thek but Paul to you and Paul to me you would have to be me to know why I am Paul after all this erroneous George business (…) everything has a name names are important (…)”. Why Thek chooses the name Paul is not clear (PW, p. 56).

1957 First exhibition at the Mirrell Gallery in Miami with works on paper (RD, p. 185).

1958-62 Thek and Harvey move to New York, Thek lives in an apartment in the East Village where he stays until his departure to Europe in summer 1962. During this time he also meets Susan Sontag who later dedicates her book “Against Interpretation” (1966) to him (RD, p. 185). Thek does not paint a lot, the time between 1958 and 1962 is a time of low art production. He works as designer in Jack Prince’s studio from 1959-1962. In 1962, he paints „The Birth of Venus“, showing an abstract motif suggestive of human flesh. (RD, p. 185). “The Birth of Venus” is considered a solo work within Thek’s oeuvre (PW, p. 87-88). A friend advises Thek to go to Norway to get some inspiration (PW, p. 86, 89).

Sources (see Bibliography, Chronological, below):

PW: Philipp Wittmann 2004

RD: Rotterdam 1994

Selected documents and letters by Paul Thek and correspondence partners.

Paul Thek: Bibliography, Chronological

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