Green Greenwald (b. 1940) American, Large Acrylic on Canvas. Far Out! A massive mélange of colors, man! Signed and dated '98 lower middle. Titled four times on back, twice on the stretcher and twice on the canvas: "Extravaganza #7, Crescent City Crossing." Dated more precisely on back: 7-31-98. The Extravaganza Series was printed from 1997-2000. This piece is two canvases tightly bound together to create one large image.
Provenance: Ron Collins Collection, Petamula, CA. Collins was a collector and benefactor of the Marin Museum of Contemporary Art.
Overall: 72 X 48 in.
#3968 .
Paul “Green” Greenwald was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1940. His family were artistic and considered “eccentric” by Midwestern standards, so he grew up with a sense of adventure, trying many different hobbies before discovering a love of art. He studied at the University of Wisconsin in 1958 before pursuing his Master’s at Layton School of Art in 1961. In 1963 he joined with fellow art students John Sahli, Mike Lamers, and Don Luther to form the psychedelic rock band The Shags. Greenwald played drums, flute, congas, and sang, Sahli was on lead guitar, harmonica, and lead vocals, Lamers played guitar, congas, autoharp, and back up vocals, and Luther played bass guitar, various percussion instruments and back up vocals. Their folk and blues infused sound gave way to harder rock, and they recorded several hits, including “Stop and Listen” in 1967, and moved to Marin County, California in 1968 to tour with Jefferson Airplane and The Who. After a few name changes and losing their lead guitarist and vocalist (twice), the band split up in 1971, and Greenwald found himself stranded on the West Coast. He played music solo while painting murals to make ends meet, eventually exploring sculpture and having his first solo shows in galleries in North California. In 1978 he met Robert Weston Smith (the infamous “Wolfman Jack”) and their conversation about Jack’s start on Minneapolis radio propelled Greenwald to move back to Wisconsin and take a job as a night shift disc jockey at WMJW, 92.1 FM (now WQFM). He went by the name “Space Commander Green” and inspired a new generation of jockeys like “Alien” Andre Bousseau and Tim “The Rock ‘N’ Roll Animal” U’ren with his boisterous personality. During this time he also worked on painting, graphic design, and interior design. After one year he accepted an offer by a fan to become a groundskeeper for their private estate in Sebastopol, California, where he was afforded limitless time to pursue sculpture and painting while caring for their Koi ponds and formal Japanese Gardens. This experience solidified his “zen” approach to art, and he started his first major large-scale works, the “tongue in cheek” Saint/Guardian Angel series. Intrigued as to how to take his art further, he enrolled in Sonoma State University in the printmaking department in 1981, creating lithographs. Over the next few years he also shifted to performance pieces and installations, creating “Electric Totems” and other light sculptures in the late 80s and early 90s. He moved to Guerneville in 1992, where he has worked ever since, and creates many forms of art, including a recent passion for woodcuts and Chinese-style landscapes. Despite being in his 80s, Greenwald is still one of the most prodigious absurdist artists of his generation, creating thousands of art pieces, songs, performance works and more, with major collections of his work throughout California and the Midwest.
