Charles Cajori

Charles Florian Cajori (March 9, 1921 – December 1, 2013) was an abstract expressionist painter who, through his drawing, painting and teaching, made a significant contribution to the New York School of artists that emerged in the 1950s.

Early life Charles Cajori was born in Palo Alto, California, to Florian Cajori and Marion Huntington Haynes. They moved to Wayne, Pennsylvania, when Charles was one year old. Florian Cajori was a bio-chemist and taught in the medical school at the University of Pennsylvania. Marion was a pianist and educator who gave piano lessons and started a school inspired by John Dewey’s philosophy of inclusion and social reform.

Cajori went to school on the Main Line in the western suburbs of Philadelphia before enrolling in Colorado Springs Art Center in 1939 and the Cleveland Art School from 1940 to 1942. He was drafted in 1942, and spent four years in the US Air Force. Upon his discharge, he went to Columbia University on the G.I. Bill and studied there with Jack Heliker. He attended the Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture of in the summers of 1947 and 1948.

Early on Cajori discovered New York's downtown scene, and began attending the lively (and sometimes feisty) gatherings at the Cedar Tavern and the panels at the fabled Eighth Street Club. He became especially close to Willem de Kooning and Franz Kline, and in 1952 he joined with Lois Dodd, Angelo Ippolito, William King and Fred Mitchell to found the Tanager Gallery on East 10th St. The gallery was to become central to the lives of many of the contemporary working artists.

In 1950 he began his teaching career at Notre Dame University in Maryland, and by 1956 he was teaching at The Cooper Union. He was awarded a Fulbright Grant to Italy in 1959. After returning to the states, he resumed his life in New York. In 1959–60, he taught at the University of California at Berkeley, where he regularly joined Richard Diebenkorn and Elmer Bischoff in figure drawing sessions.

He met his wife, Barbara Grossman, at Cooper Union and they married in 1967. They had one child, Nicole Antonia born in 1969. In 1972 they moved to a rural farm house with land in Connecticut where they could both have large studios.

Career In the 1950s Cajori had solo exhibitions at the Tanager Gallery, Bertha Schaefer Gallery and the Oakland Art Museum. His work appeared in numerous group shows including annual and biennial shows at the Stable Gallery, the Whitney Museum, the Brooklyn Museum and the Corcoran Gallery of Art. He retired from full-time teaching in 1986 to devote his time to painting and drawing.

Cajori exhibited in New York City at the Howard Wise Gallery, Ingber Gallery, Lohin-Geduld Gallery, and at the Gross-McCleaf Gallery in Philadelphia as well as numerous colleges and universities, including Dartmouth College, American University, Cornell University, Wright State University, the New York Studio School, Central Connecticut State University, Cincinnati Art Academy, University of Texas at Austin, Bennington College, and the University of Washington at Seattle.

Reviews of Cajori's work appeared in the New York Times, The New York Observer, Art News, Art in America, Arts Magazine, Art New England, Review, SoHo Weekly News, Art International, The New York Post, The Brooklyn Rail and artcritical.com, among many other publications.