Paul Bridgewater (1954 – 2021)
A New York City based fine art curator and gallerist, chef, entrepreneur and agent provocateur.
Born in Terre Haute, Indiana in 1954, and a long time resident of the East Village of New York City, Paul Bridgewater devoted his life to the visual arts.
He was Co-Founder and Director of Hard Art Gallery, Washington, DC in 1973 and continued to consult with them through the ’70’s. After moving to New York City, he went on to open Bridgewater Gallery in 1984 and saw it through many transitions, as Bridgewater/Lustberg, Bridgewater/Lustberg and Blumenfeld, to its’ current revival as Bridgewater Fine Arts, today.
Over the last four decades he has been a Board Member and/or consultant to: The Museum of Temporary Art, Washington, DC , The YWCA Craft Students League, NYC , The Watershed Foundation for Ceramic Art, Saco, ME., Meta Museum, Black Mountain College of Hillsborough, NC and Artplace Studio Foundation, NYC.
In this span of five decades, he has curated over 500 exhibitions including “Spark of Genius” for The General Electric Research and Development Center (Schenectady, NY) and consulted on such exhibits as “Temples of the Yoruba”, Photographs by Phyllis Galembo at The Schoenburg Center for Black Studies, Rockefeller Foundation, NYC and “Paint By Number” at The Smithsonian Institution’s American History Museum (Wash., DC), “American Folk” for CBS Cable and The Robert Lynch Collection of North Carolina Folk Art, Wesleyan College (Rocky Mount, NC).
Paul and long-time partner James Biddle, spent much of the 1990’s and 2000s at the Biddle Estate in Andalusia. Here Paul was instrumental in assisting Biddle in his ongoing pursuits focused on preserving America’s homes and landscapes of historic value, such as Andalusia, the Biddle family’s 19th-century estate located near Philadelphia.
Over recent years, Chih Hsuan Liang, a documentarian, has been transforming Mr. Bridgewater’s biography into a full length feature documentary entitled, ”Man From Pretentia”. Ms Liang is directing and producing with the LES Bio Project executive producing. As part of Chih’s fundraising efforts, she brought in designer Josh Gosfield to create a logo for the project.
If you wish to contribute to see the final steps of the film through to its much anticipated release, please visit the Film Forum website and donate to “Man From Pretentia.”
On the form, under “I would like to make a gift to”, please select Fiscal Sponsorship. Under A-I, please select Chih Hsuan Liang/Man from Pretentia.
On Friday October 15, 2021 Paul left this world but his passion, character, love and devotion will survive through all of those fortunate to have been touched by him through the years.