A wonderful vibrant gouache painting by John Grillo titled 'Tango' signed and dated Feb.3 98 framed 28.5" x 22.75" paper 18.25" x 12" John Grillo (1917 – 2014) was a pioneer of Abstract Expressionism, working alongside Mark Rothko and Clyfford Still from 1946 to 1947 at the California School of Fine Arts (now San Francisco Art Institute) to found the movement also known as the New York School. Grillo’s explosive drip paintings—projectile splatterings on cast-off objects as well as other more conventional supports—chronologically parallel those of Jackson Pollock, though he reserved his most radical experimentation for the media of gouache and watercolor, creating work that exudes a sensuous delight in the manipulation of paint in radiant, almost phosphorescent color. John Grillo was born July 4, 1917, the elder of three sons to Sicilian immigrant parents, in the small industrial town of Lawrence, Massachusetts. As a child his first influences were from within the family, since his father had painted and sculpted. The 1930s brought the family to Hartford, Connecticut, where John would frequent the Wadsworth Antheneum Museum , drawing inspiration from its portrait collection. John Grillo is regarded as one of the early archtects of the Expressionist Movement and is collected by many museums.