Xavier J. Barile

Xavier J. Barile (b. Saverio Barile) (March 18, 1891 – October 12, 1981) was an American painter, graphic artist, illustrator and art teacher born in Tufo, Italy. He worked in many mediums including oil, casein, watercolor, pen and ink, monotyping and etching creating figurative scenes, cityscapes, landscapes, seascapes and portraits. After graduating there, he began studies at the Art Students League. a group of artists which included his friend, the sculptor Leo Lentilli. During 1936 and 1937, Barile worked for the Treasury Relief Art Project, assisting Reginald Marsh with the murals of the Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House. Marsh and his assistants made multiple detailed field studies of American shipping in the New York City harbors before beginning the mural paintings on especially constructed scaffolding. Their wages were $1.60/hour.

Barile closed his art school in 1939 and relocated to Colorado. Upon the recommendation of his friend John Sloan for the post, Barile become the founder and Head of the Art Department at the Pueblo Junior College (which eventually morphed into Colorado State University, Pueblo). Pueblo was a base for Barile's excursions to New Mexico, Arizona and California, locations which inspired much of his monotype work and other southwestern themed paintings. Barile's numerous monotypes are considered some of his best work.

Before returning to New York City in 1946, Barile was inspired by a year spent teaching and painting in St. Augustine, Florida, where he held classes at the St. Augustine Arts Club. In New York after short stints teaching at the Pan-American Art School and the Catan-Rose Institute of Art, Barile opened his second art school in 1950, the Barile Fine Arts Group, Some of his work is in the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

Personal life Barile remained single until age 70 when he married his student, Maria Dolores Silva y Gordoa (1914–1994), who was 23 years younger than him. She preferred to use the name Lolita de Silva in both her personal and artistic life. It was the first marriage for both of them. The marriage lasted until 1979 when de Silva, who had suffered several nervous breakdowns, was taken back to Mexico by her family. Barile died two years later on October 12, 1981.

Selected exhibitions Exhibitions of Barile's work began in the 1920s and continued into the 1960s. National Academy of Design (1943) National Museum of American Art (1982) This is now the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Newark Art Museum (1951, as one of "The Dialists" ) Salmagundi Club (1954) Whitney Studio Club (1921)