Bill Giacalone

Bill Giacalone has been a painter, illustrator and sculpture for over fifty years. His paintings have been displayed in galleries in New York, New Jersey, Seattle, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Tulsa and Barcelona, Spain. His erotic works have been published in numerous magazines including Libido, Penthouse Letters, Penthouse, Penthouse Hot Talk and Penthouse Forum and were featured in the books Erotic Art by Living Artists (1988, Directors Guild Publishers) and The Art of Making Love (1992, Promethius Books).

Bill Giacalone has also illustrated a number of non-erotic books including Schnitzel, the Yodeling Goat (1965, Rutledge Books), Three Stories by Sholom Aleichem (1964, Jewish Educational Committee Press) and The Pitzel Book (1965, Ktav Publishers).

Bill Giacalone was born in New York City to the former Lena Losak and Michael Giacalone. When Bill was still an infant, the family moved to a three room shack in the in Stelton, New Jersey. There, he experienced the educational freedom taught at The Ferrer Modern School whose precept was centered on "living life" rather than learning by rote, which he attended from the ages of five to eleven.

Growing up in the anarchist colony exposed Bill to the writings of Hippolyte Haval, Emma Goldman, Harry Kelly and others. He showed artistic aptitude early on and by the age of six, his drawings were being published in the the Modern School newspaper Voice of the Children.

After attending New Brunswick High School (N.J.), Bill joined the U.S. Navy in 1943 and served throughout the duration of World War II on destroyers in both the Atlantic and Pacific Theatres. In the Pacific, he saw action in the Okinawa and Iwo Jima campaigns and was amongst the first servicemen to see first-hand the devastation of the atomic bomb at Nagasaki..

After the war, Bill studied at the Art Students League, in New York City from 1946 to 1947. During this time, he was inspired by such artists as Max Beckman, Amedeo Modigliani and Henri Matisse.

Compelled by the memory of the Holocaust just several years earlier, Bill joined the Palmach, in the fledgling State of Israel, in 1947, where he served as a scout. This experience renewed his personal sense of Judaism and would be evident in works throughout his life.

Bill married in 1955 and raised three children in Highland Park, NJ. During that period he earned his living as a commercial artist, illustrator and art director. He painted frequently during this period, inspired by the colorful, avante garde art produced in the mid 1960s.

Bill's most prolific period started in 1977. Since then, he has painted hundreds of works in a style that has constantly evolved and matured. His studio is in Highland Park, N.J.

Sailboat San Malo sailing towards
Haifa with a boatload of refugees in 1947.

	Some of the many publications and reviews of Bill Giacalone's work.