Vincent Mastracco, Am.,1941-2001, Abstract, mixed media with paint Biography: Vincent Mastracco's paintings are characterized by heavy applications of paint generally in an organized pattern. His paintings are about the act of painting and are purely abstract in origin. Often the viewer will discern and underlying grid as the armature of the work. In some cases the grid is obvious and is an integral part of the painting. Mastracco's paint is applied generously and thickly employing a variety of tools, including but not restricted to his fingers. The artist was born in 1941 and died in 2001 at the age of 59. His studio was in the World Financial Center in Lower Manhattan and he spent the weekends in his country home in Washington Depot, Conn. He died of a heart attack prior to the September 11th terrorist attacks. The building where his studio was located was damaged, but not destroyed. Mastracco was labeled a “second generation abstract expressionist” in a New York Times review of one of his exhibitions (RFRA7103)[MM]