Charles Meyers has been exhibiting since 1959, when he was studying art history at Columbia University. He started experimenting with canvas shapes early in his career, to create the illusion of space through modular forms, as the need to explore other alternatives manifested itself. In the 1960s, he studied the technique of gold leaf (vero oro) in Italy and started incorporating it in his abstract paintings. Generally painted with a wide stroke, his canvases move though the rainbow of colors, sometimes utilizing glazing and powdered pigment. The striking use of gold leaf creates a unique pattern which serves to punctuate the rhythm of the image. Vivien Raynor speaks about his paintings in a New York Times article:
"Charles Meyers […] paints with a broad brush that seems to be loaded with many colors. Each of his pictures is a field - a pool, rather -that churns with serpentine strokes in dark blues and browns veined with orange, yellow, turquoise, violet and so on. Left with that, they would be looser, more luscious versions of Milton Resnick's all-over images; but Mr. Meyers garnishes them with diagonals of gold leaf. A material that can arouse many historical associations, it smacks, in this case, of Vienna between the world wars, particularly because it is applied in irregular strands that bring out the Art Nouveau sinuousness of the painted forms."
Charles Meyers was educated at Columbia University, MFA Fine Arts/Art History and City College in New York City, BA and completed post-graduate studies at Cranbrook Academy of Art. He was a Professor of Studio Art and Art History at City College, City University of New York and a long-time board member of Artists Talk on Art. He was the recipient of many honorariums, prizes and awards, including the prestigious Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Grant, the New Millennium Artist in Resident for the Newark Museum, Valparaiso Artist in Residence (Spain), Artist in Residence for the Department of the Interior, Everglades, Florida, and the 100 year old Bird Cliff Art Colony in Woodstock, NY. His work is in numerous museums, private collections, and is included in the New Museum project: www.boweryartisttribute.org.
Proceeds from the sale of his paintings and works on paper will be donated to the Worldwide Children's Foundation of New York, a 501C3 that provides life-saving surgery to children in need around the world.
