Paul was educated at the High School of Music and Art in Manhattan; the School for Visual Arts in Manhattan; Syracuse University, where he received his B.A.; graduate studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder, and Columbia University, Teachers College, where he received his M.F.A.
Biography
Born in Manhattan, to a musical and artistic family, Robert Paul Saphier began his artistic development very early. At about the age of three he produced surprisingly complex drawings and, under the tutelage of his father, began to play the piano. At twelve, he realized a series of strang
e looking, mask-like faces of tortured souls in bright colors.
In 1970, Paul began to experience the first symptoms of what would be positively diagnosed as Multiple Sclerosis only in 1978. The intervening eight years, as the disease slowly progressed, were eventful in Paul's creative and spiritual development. In 1971, he made his first trip to India. He and a friend spent four weeks traveling in northern India and Nepal. Deeply impressed by the spiritual beauty and power of the Indian and Himalayan art he encountered, the artist began a fundamental reassessment of the importance and purpose of art. His painting began to reflect a deeper beauty and simplicity, flowing as it did from a deeper contemplation of nature and reality.
The Arunachala Mountain
Paul and Evelyn began vacationing in the area of the St. Lawrence River known as the "Thousand Islands" where Evelyn's family had always summered. Paul soon grew to love the place. He would spend long hours everyday sitting in the open, doing watercolors and drawings of the beautiful river. The couple bought an old farmhouse there and now divide their time between Queens, New York, in winter--when Paul concentrates on egg tempera paintings and his works of "spiritual geometry"-- and Hammond, New York, near the St. Lawrence, in summer. There the artist finds tremendous creative inspiration from the beauty and power of the river and the land surrounding it.
Besides works done in New York, at the St. Lawrence River, and in India, the body of the artist's work also includes paintings done on the Pacific Coast and mountains, in the Southwest, Florida, and in the Caribbean. His mature works are focused, harmonious, and visionary expressions of what he sees as the spiritual reality permeating all things.
The work of Robert Paul Saphier is in private collections throughout the United States. His paintings and drawings have been exhibited at the I.B.M. Gallery of Science and Art, the Cork Gallery at Lincoln Center, the Cigna Corporation Lobby Gallery in Philadelphia and other locations. His works have received numerous awards in national and regional exhibitions. in 1987 his work was discussed on New Jersey Public Television. One of his paintings was selected for the "Art in Embassies Program", sponsored by the United States State Department by Thomas J. Dodd, Jr. as a work representative of American art to hang in the U.S. Embassy in Uruguay during his time there. Most recently, Paul was invited to show his work at the Egg Tempera: Contemporary Masters show at the Brattleboro Museum and Art Center, Brattleboro, Vermont. He was a Featured Artist of the North Country Arts Council in 2014 and recently was given a tribute show at the Thousand Islands Arts Center in Clayton, NY.
Paul Saphier passed away on June 5, 2015 after living with M.S. for over 40 years. Paul’s gentle, intelligent, visionary and whimsical spirit continues to radiate forth in his artwork.
Mask Series, pastel on paper 12” x 9” 1957