Waters was born in 1936 in Philadelphia, PA. As a child, he attended Saturday classes at Philadelphia’s Fleisher Memorial Art School. There, as Waters says, “They let me use my fingers instead of brushes”. Waters graduated from Goddard College in Plainfield, Vermont and received his Master’s degree from the Bank Street College of Education in Manhattan. He traveled to Europe, Africa, Asia, the South Pacific and South America before making his home and studio on the Bowery in the Lower East Side of Manhattan in the 1960s and becoming involved in the art community there. He studied closely with Romare Bearden and Hungarian Abstract Expressionist Joseph Fulop.
Waters was fascinated by his parents’ collection of original African art and artifacts from tribes including the Bariba, Ndebele and the Toma people. He has taken inspiration from them and also rock and cave paintings in his work. Between 1965 and 1972, Paul Waters made large-scale paintings in which painted and cut canvas shapes are collaged onto primed canvases.
Waters was the subject of a solo exhibition in 1968 at the Brooklyn Children’s Museum. He was included in several historic shows of African-American artists in the 1970s, including "Afro American Artists: New York and Boston," Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (1970); and Contemporary Black Art: A Selected Sampling, Florida International University, Miami (1977).
Paul Waters
Celebration of Life, 1969
oil on cut linen collage on canvas
46h x 59 1/2w in
116.84h x 151.13w cm
PWAT018
Paul Waters
Beautiful Life, 1969
oil on cut linen collage on canvas
46h x 60w in
116.84h x 152.40w cm
PWAT262
Paul Waters
Dream Time Blues, 1969
oil on cut linen collage on canvas
46h x 60w in
116.84h x 152.40w cm
PWAT033
Paul Waters
Two Birds, 1972
oil on cut linen collage on canvas
48h x 36 1/2w in
121.92h x 92.71w cm
PWAT252
Paul Waters
Victims, 1971
oil on cut linen collage on canvas
34h x 30w in
86.36h x 76.20w cm
PWAT256
Paul Waters
Nineteen Birds, 1971
oil on cut linen collage on canvas
68 3/4h x 58 1/2w in
174.63h x 148.59w cm
PWAT027
Paul Waters
Elephants, 1972
oil on cut linen collage on canvas
60h x 46w in
152.40h x 116.84w cm
PWAT263
Paul Waters
Flowers, 1971
oil on cut linen collage on canvas
58 1/2h x 68 1/2w in
148.59h x 173.99w cm
PWAT268
Paul Waters
Formula Dream Survival Kit #5, 1970
oil and cut linen collage on canvas
69 1/2h x 60w in
176.53h x 152.40w cm
PWAT345
Paul Waters
The Horse with Scares and Balls, 1970
oil on cut linen collage on canvas
70h x 118w in
177.80h x 299.72w cm
PWAT379
Paul Waters
Summertime Love Couple with Flowers, 1969
oil on cut linen collage on canvas
44h x 60w in
111.76h x 152.40w cm
PWAT368
Paul Waters
Louise, 1971
oil on cut linen collage on canvas
95h x 42w in
241.30h x 106.68w cm
PWAT338