Daniel Núñez (20th Century) American, Oil on Canvas. Abstract San Francisco cityscape. Exhibition label on reverse. Signed and dated 1957 top right. 

Overall: 27 1/2 X 51 1/4 in. 

Sight: 26 1/4 X 50 1/4 in. 

#2742 . 

Daniel J. Núñez was born in December, 1929 in Benicia, California to sharecroppers Luis and Francisca. After serving two years in the Army after World War II he moved to San Francisco to pursue an education in the arts. In the late 1940s he began working primarily in oils, crafting abstract large-scale landscapes of the city and bay. In the early 1950s he moved to El Cerrito to work as a teacher’s assistant for UC Berkeley. Several of his works from the 1950s were exhibited in the Annual Painting and Sculpture Exhibitions of the San Francisco Art Association alongside Richard Diebenkorn and David Park. His use of reddish tones to highlight the time of day is particularly vivid, creating stark contrasts with the rest of the countryside. He retired in the early 1990s and moved to Albany, New York to care for his long-time partner, the figure model Ruth Lasnik, in her hometown. He returned to his home state and settled in Sacramento after her passing in the early 2000s. Although he never married, nor had any children, his extensive family was by his side when he passed away in June 2012, and donated much of his remaining work to local museums and galleries.