Harold Paris

Employment is recorded with University of California, Berkeley. Work by Harold Paris is recorded in the collections of Art Institute of Chicago, Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Print Collection and Whitney Museum of American Art. Distinctions recorded are Guggenheim Fellowship.

• Name — Harold Paris • Born — 16 August 1925 • Birthplace — Edgemere, Long Island, New York, U.S. • Died — 1 July 1979 • Place of death — El Cerrito, California, U.S. • Education — Academy of Fine Arts, Munich, Atelier 17 • Field — Printmaking, sculpture • Movement — Abstract Expressionism • Spouse — Deborah Little Paris

Paris was born on August 16, 1925, in Edgemere, Long Island, New York. In World War II he served as a correspondent for the American military newspaper Stars and Stripes and during that time he witnessed the death camps at Buchenwald concentration camp which had a profound effect on him and his art. Paris studied printmaking at Atelier 17 in New York City and sculptural casting at the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich (German: Akademie der Bildenden Künste) in Munich. In 1953 and 1954 he received a Guggenheim Fellowship. He was also the recipient of a Fulbright Grant and a Tiffany Foundation grant.

In the early 1960s Paris settled in California. In 1963 he became a professor at University of California, Berkeley. He taught printmaking and sculpture and co-founded the bronze foundry there. One of Paris' students was Shirin Neshat. Paris was also an involved with the Peter Voulkos' pot palace ceramic studio. Paris exhibited extensively while in California. In 1972 a major exhibition of his work The California Years was held at the University Art Museum in Berkeley. Paris died in El Cerrito, California, on July 1, 1979.

Harold Paris is recorded as painter, engraver, sculptor and printmaker.

Paris' work is included in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Modern Art, the National Gallery of Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art. His papers are in the Archives of American Art at the Smithsonian Institution.