David Geiser
{{Short description|American painter (1947–2020)}}
{{for|the mycologist|David M. Geiser}}
David Geiser (June 28, 1947 – October 14, 2020) was an American painter and creator of several underground comix.
Life and works
David Geiser was an abstract expressionist painter, born in Rochester, New York in 1947. He studied at the University of Vermont and the Art Students League. In 1969, he postponed attending Yale University, moving instead to San Francisco and began drawing underground comix, while befriending other underground comic creators such as S. Clay Wilson and San Francisco Comic Book Company founder Grey Arlington and immersed himself in illustrations.{{Cite web|url=https://www.dailycartoonist.com/index.php/2020/11/13/david-geiser-rip/|title = David Geiser – RIP|date = 13 November 2020}} Geiser created several underground comic titles in the early 1970s, including Saloon, Demented Pervert, Clowns, Uncle Sham, DTs, Pain, Sloppy Seconds, and Edge City. The number of issues produced ranged from 1,000 to about 10,000.
Geiser left San Francisco in 1976 and spent two years in Paris, where he studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. He returned to the United States in 1979, settling in SoHo, New York in the early 1980s. At that point, Geiser began concentrating on oil painting and moving into abstract expressionism. His canvases are tactile and deep, often being composed of many layers of shellac, pitch, tar, rope and scrap wood.
Geiser was married to actress Mercedes Ruehl. In 2001 they moved to East Hampton where they lived with their son, Jake. A son from a previous marriage, Cameron Geiser, lives in Montara, California.{{Cite web|url=https://www.easthamptonstar.com/obituaries/2020115/david-geiser-artist-was-73|title = David Geiser, Artist, Was 73 | the East Hampton Star}} They put their Hampton house on the market in 2017; the same year Ruehl was quoted as saying that they were no longer together, but remained close.{{Cite web|url=https://nypost.com/2017/11/02/meet-the-most-unloved-woman-in-new-york/|title = Meet the 'most unloved woman in New York'|date = 2 November 2017}}{{bsn|date=October 2024}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.27east.com/real-estate-news/mercedes-ruehl-and-david-geiser-unload-east-hampton-home-1403832/|title=Mercedes Ruehl and David Geiser Unload East Hampton Home|date=28 March 2017}}
David Geiser died unexpectedly of heart disease in his sleep at home on October 14, 2020, at the age of 73.
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [http://www.geiser.net/davidgeiser David Geiser paintings and show history]
- [http://www.geiser.net/davidgeiser/comics.html David Geiser comics]
- [http://www.geiser.net/davidgeiser/essay_detritus.html Review by Robert C. Morgan]
- [http://lambiek.net/artists/g/geiser_david.htm Geiser's listing] at Lambiek.net
{{Underground comix cartoonists|state=collapsed}}
{{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Geiser, David}}
Category:20th-century American painters
Category:American male painters
Category:21st-century American painters
Category:American Expressionist painters
Category:Abstract expressionist artists
Category:Underground cartoonists
Category:American alumni of the École des Beaux-Arts
Category:Artists from Rochester, New York
Category:20th-century American male artists
Category:21st-century American male artists
{{US-painter-stub}}
{{US-comics-creator-stub}}