3rd Floor

BEFORE WORDS: The Art of Peter Paone 

October 8, 2026 – April 25, 2027 

A celebrated painter and printmaker, Paone established and chaired the printmaking department at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where he taught for more than 30 years.  His work has been featured in recent exhibitions at the Brandywine Museum of Art, the Michener Art Museum, and Woodmere Art Museum.  This groundbreaking exhibition at the Biggs Museum of American Art in Dover, Delaware, is the first to focus on his watercolors.  Though Paone has been building portfolios of these works since the 1970s, many have never been shown publicly.  His images are surreal and fantastical, drawing on art historical references with a touch of macabre humor to develop a cast of characters inhabiting a world entirely his own.  Showcasing approximately 75 works, this exhibition and its related publication serve as a retrospective of Paone’s work in this medium.   

As Paone described these images, they are “waiting for a story to be written about them, the reverse of illustration.”  Programming around the exhibition will focus on storytelling and cultivate a multidisciplinary approach, inviting writers and members of the public to develop their own tales for these images that exist Before Words.     

This show was developed in dialogue with the artist before his passing in May 2026 and marks the final exhibition to which he contributed.  The opening reception will take place shortly after what would have been his 90th birthday.   

All images courtesy of the artist’s estate.