Nathan Oliveira whose family had immigrated from Portugal, had ambivalence about being lumped solely in with Bay Area Figurative artists. He had also been influenced by Bacon and Munch and the European tradition of Max Beckmann who was teaching at nearby Mills College. He also came to admire the work and the person of De Kooning.

He was included in the famous group drawing sessions. but he was not included in the important 1957 exhibition as the others were (see previous posts this week)-and wrote that his 'objectives were quite different'. Oliviera's art was described by Caroline Jones as "hot and personal" whereas Park, Diebenkorn and Bischoff, Gen 1, had been "cool and universal"

So he was something of a renegade, yet shared many of the main concerns of this 'bridge' generation. He had a foot in both worlds...and this painting, Spring Nude, 1962, from the Oakland Museum shows that synthesis. There is a feeling of mythology and of everywoman. (Oliviera began painting both sexes, but ended up concentrating on the female nude) The red spectrum is other worldly, the scale is large, and the woman drifts in and out of view, like an apparition. It is as if Park's figures had eventually dissolved into the canvas.

Soon after this was painted, Oliviera also moved to Los Angeles to teach at UCLA but then bounced back north to Stanford. By then the different strands of the Bay Area Figurative Movement had overtaken the original group. If you go to Stanford today, you can see where Oliviera's work ended, in a meditation center designed around his late paintings capturing bird flight.