* Indicates solo exhibition
| Year | |
|---|---|
| 1913, June 21 | Born Paul Emile Antoine Fontaine in Worcester Massachusetts to Elzear Herman Egile Fontaine,(4/17/1898, Central Falls RI-7/1950, Worcester, MA) an undertaker and Mary Adwilda LaPlante (10/11/1896, Worcester,MA-9/1977Guadalajara, Mexico). Both were of French Canadian descent. He had two younger brothers Russell Ellery Fontaine and Leo Elzear Fontaine. |
| 1920-1926 | Rice Square School, Worcester, MA |
| 1926-1929 | Junior High, Grafton Str, Worcester, MA |
| 1929-1932 | North High, Salisbury St, Worcester, MA. Worked at Lavoigne Drug Store, Franklin St, Worcester, MA under Frank Lavoign |
| 1935-May-Dec | Worked in the Civilian Conservation Corp (C.C.C.) as an artist, depicting scenes of camp life. |
| 1932-1935 | Worcester Art Museum School, Worcester, MA . Two major influences were Mr. Michie's lectures on oriental art, in particular Notan theory and Mr. Humann stress on originality and development of a personal style. Worked on watercolor technique, informed by Winslow Homer, John Singer Sargent and Albert Pinkham Ryder works in the Worcester Art Museum. |
| 1932-1940 | Between 1932 and 1940 Fontaine received six art scholarships and one traveling fellowship. In 1936 Mr. Francis Henry Taylor, then director of the Worcester Art Museum and later director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, for the first and only time arranged for the Worcester Museum to match the museum school's highest graduating award so that Fontaine could continue his art studies at Yale. |
| 1935 | National Museum, Washington D.C. "Art from CCC camps" |
| 1936 | Whitney Museum, New York Corcoran Gallery, Washington D.C. |
| 1936 | WPA Art Project: Assisted in painting the Springfield, Massachusetts Post Office murals designed by his former teacher Umberto Romano. |
| 1937-39 | Attended Yale University, School of Art. Finished five year program in two and half years. While a student at Yale, he also taught composition, drawing and painting at Cheshire Academy-, Roxbury, Conn. and at the Waterbury Art School, Waterbury, Conn. on the side. |
| 1939, December | Completed work for his degree at Yale. |
| 1940 | Contributed to the mural design about the life of Sir Thomas More for the Burnham Stained Glass Studios, Boston, Mass. for the St. Thomas More Chapel in St. Mary Cathedral in Peoria, Illinois. ( Unfortunately the cathedral murals have been painted over with white paint) |
| 1940, June | Awarded B.F.A.degree, highest honor in his class and the Winchester Wirt Traveling Fellowship, under Dean Meeks, for further study.The scholarship was intended to be used in Europe but due to the outbreak of WWII he settled on the Virgin Islands. |
| 1940, August 24 | Married Virginia Hammersmith, from Milwaukee, Wisconsin and also an art student at Yale. She later proved to be an accomplished photographer, art collector and vital to Paul's introduction into known art circles. |
| 1940-41 | Painted in the British Virgin Islands--Guana, Virgin Gorda, Tortola, and also Puerto Rico. One-man show at Eliza King Dooley residence, Santurci, Puerto Rico.The pleasant watercolors of local scenes became less representational as he experimented with color and rhythmical patterns of black and white. |
| 1941 | National Gallery. 200 Watercolors competition traveling exhibition San Juan, Puerto Rico -Home of Henry W. Dooley* Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts 39th Annual Philadelphia. Water color and print exhibition Denholm & McKay Co., Worcester, Massachusetts |
| 1942 | Designed and built his own studio, "Rocky Tor", on the side of a mountain on the outskirts of Worcester. Founded the Worcester Artists Group with Herbert Barnett, head of the School of the Worcester Museum of Art, which toured New England and the Mid-west two years. Also worked at Worcester Pressed Steel and Worcester Wire Works. |
| 1942 | Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, "Worcester Artists Group" Museum of Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island |
| 1943-1945 | Entered U.S.Army as combat engineer. Rose from private to Sargent. In Naples, Rome and Florence requested to do murals for officers clubs and the Red Cross. Illustrated the Official History of the II Corps. Specialized in topographical work in Headquarters of II Corps of 5th Army. Made watercolors in his spare time. As a soldier in Italy, from 1943 to 1945, his art became more abstract. |
| 1943, December 27 | Daughter Carol born, Worcester MA |
| 1943 | Grace Horne Galleries, Boston Worcester Art Museum, "Worcester County Exhibition" Baltimore Museum of Art, "200 American Watercolors" |
| 1944 | Worcester Artists Group-Traveling Show Worcester Art Museum, Cleveland Art Museum |
| 1945-May 1946 | Cartographer for Historical Division, Paris. Made maps, graphs, overlays, book cover designs etc. to illustrate the history of WWII. |
| 1945 | Grace Horne Galleries, Boston |
| 1945 | ( to March 1946) "War Watercolors" traveling exhibit, Milwaukee Art Institute, Milwaukee, Wisconsin* Indiana State University Museum, Terre Haute Ripon College, Ripon, Wisconsin Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, Michigan (with George Buder) Worcester County Exhibition, Worcester Art Museum (with 300 other Worcester Artists) Fitchburg Museum, Fitchburg, MA* Margaret Brown Gallery, Boston* |
| 1946 May -June 1953 | Assistant Art Director, A.G. Graphic Section, Publications branch Frankfurt Military Post, Germany for the 7879 Publications Depot under Mr. Boatman. Made and supervised posters, displays, booklets etc for the US Army. After the war, he had planned to reside in Paris, but his civilian job as an illustrator with the U. S. Army Historical Division moved to Frankfurt, Germany. The year 1947 marks his total commitment to abstract painting. |
| 1948, May | First show in Germany, at the Frankfurter Kunstkabinett, gallery of Hanna Bekker vom Rath ( Exhibited over fifty times during his life in Germany) |
| 1948, August 31 | Daughter Paula (Gigi) born, Frankfurt, Germany. |
| 1948 | Margaret Brown Gallery, Boston MA (Exhibition of Worcester Artists Group: Fontaine, Herbert Barnett, Cynthia Green, Leon Hovsepian, Lincoln Levinson and Mary Murphy); Frankfurter Kunstkabinett, Frankfurt, West Germany*; Wuppertal Barmen Museum, Westphalia, West Germany* |
| 1949 | Frankfurter Kunstkabinett (with Willi Baumeister and Heinrich Wildemann); Salon des Réalités NouveIles, Museum of Modern Art, Paris; Atelier Chichio Haller, Zurich (with Oscar Dalvit and Otto Tschumi) |
| 1950 | Margaret Brown Gallery, Boston* Studio Fur Neue Kunst Doppersberg, Wuppertal, West Germany* Frankfurter Kunstkabinett (with Jurg Spiller) Hamburger Volkerkunde Museum, West Germany "die Gruppe" (to Sept. 1951) One-man traveling exhibition to German museums and US cultural centers: Amerika Haus Marburg, West Germany* Amerika Haus Fulda, West Germany* Amerika Haus Berlin (with Rolf Cavael) |
| 1951 | Studio Fur Neue Kunst Doppersberg, Wuppertal Die Brücke Galerie Elberfeld, Wuppertal* Salon des Réalités NouveIles, Museum of Modern Art, Paris Brooklyn Museum, NY (American Federation of Arts -Group Print Show) Palace Hotel, St. Moritz, Switzerland Frankfurter Kunstkabinett (with Hilla Rebay, Rolf Scarlett, Lloyd Ney, Jean Xeron ) Amerika Haus Kassel |
| 1952 | Pittsburgh International of Contemporary Painting at Carnegie Institute |
| 1953, May-June 1970 | Moved to Darmstadt, Germany. Employed at the the Stars & Stripes, as Art Director. |
| 1953 | Frankfurter Kunstkabinett (with Alexander Calder) Amerika Haus Heidelberg, West Germany Stedlijk Museum Amsterdam, in Dr. Ottomar Domnick collection Wuppertal Barmen Museum |
| 1954 | Märkischen Museum, Witten-Ruhr, West Germany (with Constanze Schwedeler) Darmstadt Stadtbücherei Austellung Buchhandlung Werthmüller Galerie, Basel Switzerland* |
| 1955 | Stedlijk Museum Amsterdam Holland. (with I. Aopley ,Oscar Chelimsky, John H.Levee ,B. Parker) |
| 1955 | (to May 1956) Frankfurter Kunstkabinett World Tour: Havana, Cuba, Palacio de Bellas Artes; Sao Paulo, Brazil, Museum de Artes; Santiago, Chile, German Chilean Culture Institute; Capetown, South Africa, Gallery Kreitner; Bombay, India, J.J. School of Art; Bangalore, India, Indian Institute of Culture; New Delhi, India, Jaipur House; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Museu de Arte Moderna; Belo Horizonte, Brazil, Edificio Dante |
| 1956, September 29 | Daughter Claudia born, Frankfurt, Germany. |
| 1956 | East & West Gallery, San Francisco* Neue Darmstädter Sezession, Darmstadt Patio Galerie, Sachsenhausen/Frankfurt* |
| 1958 | Orangerie Kunstverein Erlangen Stadtmuseum Schloss Morsbroich Leverkusen, West Germany (with Erdmann, Hoppe, Müller-Erbach, Steinforth ) Frankfurter Kunstkabinett* |
| 1960 | Frankfurter Kunstkabinett (with Lucia Stern) Der Kongress für die Freiheit der Kultur, Hamburg* |
| 1961 | Neue Darmstädter Sezession "ORGANON 61" Earban Bayer Museum, Leverkusen (with Fritz Mecking, Shinkichi Tajiri, Hedwig Thun, Hermann Tomada) |
| 1962 | Frankfurter Kunstkabinett "Künstler unserer Galerie" (with Heinze Battke, Franz Cestnik, Erna Ernst-Brüning, Arthur Fauser, Kurt Federlin, EV Grüger, Gerhard Hintschich, Ida Kerkovius, Siegfried Klapper, E.W. Nay, Hlega Portig-Sitka, Edith Rowek, Luis Saez, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff) |
| 1963 | Heidelberg Amerika Haus( (with Merle E. Hunter, Leo Crewenig, Christa Moering, Robert Hyde, Oskar Kolb) |
| 1964, April | Accepted into the Darmstädter Sezession |
| 1964 | Galerie Patio Neu-Isenburg /Frankfurt Hoechst Frankfurt, Neckerman Eigenheim GMBH ( with A.P. Adzak, Herbert Beck, Werner Böttinger, Francis Bott, Kurt Federlin, EV Grüger, Andrew Molles, Adelaide Morandotti, Madja Ruperti, Luis Saez, Friedel Schulz-Denhardt, Heinrich Steiner) Neue Darmstädter Sezession Neue Darmstädter Sezession Keller Galerie im Schloss Darmstadt* |
| 1965 | Neckerman Exhibition, Frankfurt Neue Darmstädter Sezession |
| 1966 | Tower Gallery am Rhein, West Germany* Patio Galerie , Sachsenhausen/Frankfurt* Aschaffenburg Museum, West Germany |
| 1967 | Neue Darmstädter Sezession |
| 1968 | Keller Galerie Im Schloss Darmstadt* |
| 1969 | Neue Darmstädter Sezession, Germany |
| 1970 | Neue Darmstädter Sezession im Wilhelm-Lehmbruck-Museum Duisburg, West Germany Keller Galerie im Schloss Darmstadt* |
| 1970 July-June 1992 | Retired to Guadalajara Mexico. Spent the first year and half in a trailer park. Painted over 50 watercolors in the trailerpark tent studio. Many became studies for larger acrylic paintings. |
| 1971 | Erie Art Center,Erie, PA ( with Richard Treaster, Roswell Weidner, and Joseph Amarotico) |
| 1971, November | First show in Mexico at Instituto Cultural Norteamericano de Jalisco in Guadalajara. Exhibited 32 times during his life in Mexico. |
| 1972 | Universidad de Colima, Jalisco* Instituto Cultural Mexicano Norteamericano de Jalisco (with George Blais) |
| 1973 | Erie Art Museum, Erie, Pennsylvania* |
| 1974 | Galería del Lago Ajijic, Mexico* Frohman Gallery, Suffolk, Virginia* |
| 1975 | AAUW-Frohman Gallery, Suffolk |
| 1976 | Fifth International Art Fair-American Society of Jalisco |
| 1978 | Galería Municipal Torres Bodet, Guadalajara, Mexico* Casa de Hogar, Teuchitlán, Mexico |
| 1980 | Centro de Arte Moderno, Guadalajara* Centro de Arte Moderno, Guadalajara, "Catorce Pintores de Guadalajara" Instituto Cultural Mexicano Norteamericano, Mexico, D.F.* |
| 1981 | Centro de Arte Moderno, Guadalajara "16 Pintores de Guadalajara" |
| 1984 | Galería Municipal Torres Bodet, Guadalajara (with Carlos Romero Morales, Guillermo Fernandez de Castro) |
| 1985 | Galería Alejandro Gallo, Guadalajara* |
| 1986 | Worthington Gallery, Chicago* |
| 1987 | Museo de Arte Moderno, Guadalajara |
| 1988 | Galería de Arte Moderno, Guadalajara ( with Jorge Velarde) Chicago International Art Fair |
| 1989 | Chicago International Art Fair |
| 1989 | Worthington Gallery, Chicago* |
| 1991, February 20 | Virginia died, Guadalajara Mexico, at age of 75 of emphesyma. |
| 1991 | Worthington Gallery Chicago IL |
| 1992 | Galería Alejandro Gallo, Guadalajara* |
| 1992, June | Moved to Austin Texas where Paula and Claudia lived. Represented by Sol del Rio Gallery, San Antonio, TX |
| 1995 | Sol del Rio Gallery, San Antonio, Texas |
| 1996, January 23 | Died of heart failure in Austin, TX |