Giorgio Cavallon (1904-1989) was an Italian-American artist who was a pioneer of the American Abstract Expressionist movement. Born in Italy in 1904, he immigrated to the United States in 1920. He studied at the National Academy of Design in New York City in 1926 before moving to Provincetown, Massachusetts for two years to study under Charles Hawthorne. In the early 1930s, he attended evening studies with Hans Hofmann’s School of Fine Art.
In 1934, Cavallon became employed with the Works Progress Administration/Federal Art Project as Arshile Gorky’s assistant in the Easel and Mural Division. In 1936, he was a founding member of the American Abstract Artists group, and by the 1940s, he was connected to the early generation of New York School Abstract Expressionists whose innovation was being recognized both in the states and abroad, including in Paris. In 1949, Cavallon joined the “Artist’s Club” located at 39 East 8th Street in New York City. He was chosen by his peers to exhibit in the famous Ninth Street Show of 1951. Cavallon continued to participate in the invitational New York Painting and Sculpture Annuals until 1957. These annuals were significant in that the artists themselves chose the exhibited artists.
Cavallon lived in Manhattan until his death at the age of 85. His works are featured in the public collections of Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York City, Museum of Modern Art, New York, among many others.