During the 1950s and '60s, Chuey had over ten one-man
one-man shows in Southern California , six of them taking place at the Frank Perls Gallery
in Bevery Hills, and two at the Fleisher-Anhalt Gallery in Los Angeles, CA.. His
first show, in 1951, of still lifes with kitchen utensils (as shown in photo #10 ) was
extremely successful and Chuey became known for his "pots and pans" paintings.
By the late 50s, his work was mostly comprised of broadly painted
landscapes (such as shown in photos # 6 and #7). He continued to explore and develop his
work into abstractions of landscapes and figures.
Paintings by Robert Chuey were shown at the Los Angeles County Museum in
several exhibitions from 1949 through 1960, the De Young Memorial Museum in San
Francisco, the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh ( 1953), the California Palace of the
Legion of Honor (1952), the Sao Paulo Brazil Biennale (1955), and other exhibitions of
contemporary art around the country. Chuey was also included in the 1951 Newcomer
Show at the Downtown Gallery in New York. In 1957, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art
accorded Robert Chuey a one-man show.
Chuey's exhibitions received favorable reviews in the press and his work
was purchased by a number of notable art collectors during the 1950s and '60s, such
as Stanley Marcus, Morton May, and show business celebrities Vincent Price, Billy
Wilder, and Fanny Brice, among others. During that period, two of his paintings were
acquired for the Smithsonian Institution's Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden.
Robert Chuey is included in the archives of the Oakland Art Museum, in Oakland,
CA, the Smithsonian Instituition in Washington, D.C., and the Sao Paulo Art Museum
in Brazil.
A respected teacher, Chuey taught art at the Los Angeles
County Art Institute (1954-56), the Chouinard Art Institute (1958-68), the University of
California, Santa Barbara (1965-67), the University of Southern California
(1967-68), and the University of California, Los Angeles (1968-72).
Robert Chuey was a prolific artist, completely immersed in his work, and left a
collection of several hundred paintings and drawings. The paintings range in size from 2 x
3 feet to 7 x 8 feet. |
