David Geiser

David Geiser (1947 - 2020) was an abstract expressionist painter, born in Rochester NY. He studied at the University of Vermont and the Art Students League. In 1969, he made a decision to move to San Francisco, detouring his acceptance at Yale. 
Once there (1970’s) he immersed himself in the underground comic scene, illustrating with a group of like-minded underground comic creators.
David left San Francisco for Paris in 1976, to study classical painting at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. He returned in 1980, settling in Soho, NY- moving into abstract expressionism.
His paintings are tactile and deep, often being composed of many layers of shellac, pitch, tar, rope and scrap wood. David’s body of work also includes abstract mixed-media pieces created on irregular shapes of parchment, a series he returned to over a period of 20 years, with lavish, layered oil paintings featuring organic forms on board. 

The noted art historian, curator, and museum director Peter Selz said of Mr. Geiser's art, "David Geiser's work is about transforming matter into spirit. His stunning pieces ascend from the basic life force of nature."

David moved to East Hampton in 2000 with his longtime partner, actress Mercedes Ruehl and their son, Jake. A son from a previous marriage, Cameron Geiser, lives in Montara, California. David Geiser died unexpectedly of heart disease at his studio on October 14, 2020. He was 73 and lived a very interesting life, traveling the world, as a prolific painter and illustrator. 

~Mercedes Ruehl wrote after his passing:
David Geiser was primarily an abstract expressionist painter, and lived and worked most of his life in New York City, and Springs, on the East End.  As a young man, he skipped graduate school at Yale and moved to San Francisco in the summer of 1969.  There he hung out with S.Clay Wilson and Grey Arlington and immersed himself in the underground comix movement, illustrating over 1000 issues.  He left that scene in 1976, moved to Paris, studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts for 3 raucous years, and finally settled in Soho New York, in 1980. He spent 20 years of his life there, later moving to Springs in 2000. In the rustic cabin in the Catskills he owned while living in New York, he loved to fish trout in nearby streams; critic Robert Morgan noted that he “loved the fresh water scent, the isolation, the concentration, and the necessity to remain alert.” From the streams and forests, the ‘color, tones, of glazes, subtle pours and drips’ of his work emerged.  When he moved on to ocean shores, harbors and bays in Springs, he was moved anew by the the bulge and nuzzle of the sea,  “the world of eternal struggle to some wondrous outward manifestation”.  His daily ritual took him to Main beach in East Hampton at dawn and Maidstone Beach at sunset, where he exalted in the inexhaustible glory. 

His sons Cameron, Jake, and I know this ancient man inside the modern one, and dearly miss him.  He was, as Shakespeare said, “a man, take him for all in all.  We shall not look upon his like again”.