Philip Taaffe

Philip Taaffe (born 1955) is an American artist, who has shown his works all around the world.

[1][2] Taaffe was born in Elizabeth, New Jersey and studied at the Cooper Union in New York, gaining a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1977.

An admirer of Matisse's cut-outs and of Synthetic Cubism, from the mid-1980s he began to borrow images and designs directly from more recent artists.

In We Are Not Afraid (1985), he develops Barnett Newman’s zip motif into a spiral; the title is a reply to Newman's series of paintings Who's Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue (1966–70).

A painting by Taaffe is in the private collection of Elton John at Woodside, Old Windsor; it had previously hung in Gianni Versace's townhouse in New York.