Allan D'Arcangelo
Allan D’Arcangelo (1930–1998) was an acclaimed American painter and printmaker who can be regarded as a member of/contributor to the Pop Art movement. With a career spanning over five decades, he gained recognition for his precisionist, minimalist, and brightly colored depictions of highway and road signs, distinguished by their vibrancy, precise geometry, and solid forms. Born in Buffalo, NY. D’Arcangelo studied at the University of Buffalo, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in history from 1948 to 1953.
Upon completing college, he moved to Manhattan and was exposed to Abstract Expressionism, which was gaining momentum. He enrolled at the New School of Social Research and the City University of New York City College. After serving in the military in the mid-fifties, he studied painting at Mexico City College from 1957 to 1959. D’Arcangelo’s first solo exhibition was in 1963 at the Fischbach Gallery in New York.
Although D’Arcangelo’s work initially took influences from Abstract Expressionism, his paintings quickly developed a style that blended “Pop Art, Minimalism, Precisionism, and Hard-Edge” painting elements. In these paintings he often depicted roads, signs, geometric shapes, American icons, and women, painted in a way that aligned with the Pop Art movement. His works are held in respected collections like the Walker Art Center, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Modern Art, and the National Gallery of Art.