Listen to article \u2022\u00a00:00 min<\/p>\n
Peter Paone, a longtime pillar of the Philadelphia arts world whose work spanned mediums and appeared in some of the world\u2019s most prestigious art museums, died this week at Jefferson Abington Hospital after a brief illness. He was 89. <\/p>\n
Mr. Paone\u2019s death Thursdaycame as a shock to his many friends and colleagues in the city\u2019s art world, who had come to consider him a \u201cfather figure\u201d to Philadelphia artists. <\/p>\n
His work appeared around the world, from England to Germany. Stateside, it became part of collections at some of the country\u2019s preeminent venues, including the Philadelphia Museum of Art<\/a>, the Art Institute of Chicago, and New York\u2019s Museum of Modern Art. <\/p>\n \u201cPeter really became a legend in his own lifetime,\u201d said William Valerio, CEO and director of the Woodmere Art Museum. \u201cAnd the amazing thing about his life is that he got to know that.\u201d <\/p>\n Indeed, Mr. Paone\u2019s death comes amid a career renaissance of sorts, as his work had been featured recently in a pair of high-profile exhibits at Philadelphia-area venues: \u201cSnowpeople<\/a>,\u201d at the Woodmere in Chestnut Hill<\/a>; and \u201cNot So Still Life<\/a>\u201d at Doylestown\u2019s Michener Art Museum. <\/p>\n Both exhibits debuted last fall and ran until earlier this year, bringing renewed attention both to Mr. Paone\u2019s work and his impact on the city\u2019s arts world.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was really being rediscovered, more or less, with this generation,\u201d said Audrey Lewis, a former curator at the Brandywine Museum of Art.<\/p>\n The son of Italian immigrants, Mr. Paone was born and raised in South Philly, where his art career began in earnest at the age of 8. <\/p>\n As a child, he honed his craft at an easel in the basement of the family\u2019s two-story rowhouse, as well as a neighborhood community center. He attended weekly art classes at the Fleisher Art Memorial, and later earned admission to John Bartram High School, a prominent arts school of the time. <\/p>\n At 15, he notoriously finagled his way into the famed Barnes Foundation<\/a>, scaling the front gate and knocking on the door of the facility, which at the time \u2014 1952 \u2014 was not open to the public. <\/p>\n There, arts educator Violette de Mazia reluctantly provided him a glass of water and a personal tour \u2014 the start of a friendship that Mr. Paone would credit with spearheading his career as an artist. <\/p>\n After receiving a degree in art education from the Philadelphia Museum School of Art (later renamed the University of the Arts<\/a>), his early career took him away from Philadelphia. <\/p>\n In 1965, he was the recipient of a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship. He spent time in Paris and New York, and his work appeared across the world, from London to Vienna to Hamburg.<\/p>\n Curious and gregarious, he was relentless in his pursuit of knowledge, those who knew him said. <\/p>\n