Salvatore Romano, an artist and Soho resident of more than 40 years, died on Sept. 18 at the age of 90.
He was born on Sept. 12, 1925, in Cliffside, N.J. He served in the U.S. Navy in the 1940s.
Sal Romano then studied painting and drawing at the Art Students League in New York and at the Académie de la Grande Chaumiere in Paris during the 1950s.
He was a member of the Brata Gallery, a cooperative gallery in New York that included many artists involved with Minimalism.
In 1965 Romano was included in the iconic exhibition “Primary Structures” at the Jewish Museum. This show was followed by many others, including major installations — some involving water and kinetic elements — at the Sculpture Center in Manhattan, at the Brooklyn Bridge and at Socrates Sculpture Park, in Long Island City.
Exhibitions of his constructions in copper and brass were held at Rutgers University and at numerous galleries in New York City and Upstate New York.
In his artist’s statement, Romano said, “The theme of my work remains complexity and contradiction. My sculpture embodies the idea of change, of fluidity of motion on the one hand, and of minimal forms pushed to their essence, in some instances made transparent, in others impermeable bulk, but in every case serving as vehicles of movement and reflection.”
Romano was a sculpture professor at the City University of New York’s Lehman College for 30 years. He resided in Soho with his family since 1973.
For five decades his work has been exhibited in New York galleries in Soho and Chelsea, and his art has also been shown in Brazil and Italy.
During the 1970s Romano’s work grew to the ambitious scale and proportions found in the art of Minimalists Ronald Bladen and Tony Smith, among others.
He is survived by his daughter, Joyce Romano, and his wife, Connie Romano.
