Bud Wehrheim (1910-2001), Surrealist Composition, Gouache On Paper, Signed, 1960

Bud Wehrheim is an American artist born in 1910 in Saint-Louis (MO), USA. He followed courses at the Baltimore School of Fine Arts until 1932 before going to Europe, to Munich then to Italy and finally to Paris in 1934 where he worked with Ossip Zadkine before meeting L. Survage of whom he became the student and with whom he will develop a great friendship. In 1935 he returned to the United States, settled near New York and began his career as a painter by participating in numerous exhibitions. He was incorporated into the Marine Corps during the Second World War, and was sent to Iceland and then to the Pacific Islands. In 1949, holding a scholarship, he came to study in Paris following courses at the Académie Montmartre, studying with Fernand Léger and André Lhote; There he finds his friend L. Survage. Between 1952 and 1968 he exhibited in Paris and New York in different galleries (Mouffetard, Paris and Altdorper, New York). From 1961, he shared his life between Paris and Greece where he settled on the island of Skyros. His painting, very much influenced by Surrealism and his friendship with Survage, will move towards Greece and Mythology. From 1976, he moved to Ardèche where he lived, worked and exhibited until his death in 2001.