“Richard Nixon Portrait” (ca. 1978-79)
by Paul Chadwick (1957-)
20 x 20 in., acrylic on board
Coppola Collection

This is an astoundingly unique piece by “Concrete” artist Paul Chadwick, more than a decade before his signature work. Chadwick and I were both born in 1957.

Chadwick reports: “The Nixon portrait was done in art school, probably 1978 or 79. I graduated in 1979. It was painted for Don Weller and Mike Gaine’s team-taught class, Advanced Illustration. Weller had a jaunty Peter-Max sort of illustration style, linear with colored inks. Gaines was an art director at an ad agency. They were quite the comedy team. The idea was that it illustrated a psychological profile of Nixon. Hence the faux-mathematical lines imposed. It’s acrylic — I seldom used slow-drying oils at Art Center College of Design. I had one eye on doing movie posters when I was in art school — and got to do a handful once I was out, although I never gave Drew Struzan anything to worry about. This portrait was probably done with that in mind, showing I could do a likeness.”