Hall Groat Sr at The Gallery of CNY

The infamous Syracuse Artist Hall Groat Sr at The Gallery of CNY in Cazenovia NY.

Artist Biography

An American Impressionist painter is a native of Syracuse, New York, where he studied painting; worked towards his Master of Fines Arts degree and began his life long career as an artist. Groat has dedicated his entire full-time professional career, spanning over forty years, to pursuing his passion for art. The Berkshire Museum was the first of several museums worldwide to acquire a major Groat work. The Museum purchased  the prize winner, Megalopolis, one of the largest of Groat's railroad paintings. This is where the late Norman Rockwell first discovered him and invited the then twenty-nine year old to dinner in the Berkshires.

The United Nations awarded Groat with the honor of having a series of paintings for their stamp reproduction. The series of ten paintings is in the permanent collections of United Nations Philatelic Museum in Geneva, Switzerland. In addition, Groat's paintings are included in the collections of notables such as President Jimmy Carter, the late Jacob Javits, Henry Kissinger, Fred Perry, Sir Michael Tippett, Christopher Keane, and the late Arthur Fiedler. Ambassadors among countless others have also invested in his work.

In recent years, Groat has turned his attention to the corporate world with emphasis on banks, churches, brokerage houses, and insurance companies. His work is included in numerous corporate collections throughout the world today. Clement Greenberg, one of the nation's foremost art critics, once stated that "Hall Groat was an artist who could make it" and he was proved correct.   

(New York Art Collection)

“Always self-confident, Groat’s brushwork has become even bolder and more assertive. In many of the works presented, we find the paint is applied in broad strokes or highly apparent daubs and drips, heightening our sense of disparity between the creative energy of the artist and the refined sophistication of the image. The surface of these paintings is thicker, with the addition of sand and occasionally collage to the medium, so that lines are inscribed into the surface as often as painted upon it. The hallmark of Groat’s style remains his uncanny ability to organize compositions through color. But those who recall the soft, brooding landscapes of the past will find here a warmer, more vibrant palette, with more strident contrasts of both hue and value. So, too, has the ambient light of earlier landscapes become more focused and dramatic. In paintings like Monhegan Surf, the light which illuminates the landscape has become the subject of the painting. Groat’s depiction often treads a fine line between realism and abstraction. Objects or entire scenes come into our presence with the force of belated recognition."

-Jim Hall, Art Critic, Rochester, New York