Roland Wise June 19, 1923 - December 5, 2005

Roland Wise was born June 19, 1923 in San Francisco, CA and raised in Brooklyn, NY.

During WWII, he was influenced by European art. From 1946-49, he studied at New York City’s Art Students League, with Will Barnet and Morris Kantor. Wise was also influenced by National Academy-trained artist Umberto Romano, while working at the Romano Art School in Gloucester, MA.

He began teaching at the University of Manitoba’s newly established School of Art, in Winnipeg in 1951, also earning a bachelor’s degree in fine arts. In 1955, he joined the art department at Buffalo State College in Buffalo, NY. In 1959, he received a master’s degree in art education from New York University.

Wise taught painting and drawing at Buffalo State College for 37 years; during his tenure, he served as fine arts department chairman.

Wise traveled and painted continually, both internationally and locally, and became a well-known artist in the Buffalo community. In 1960 he won first prize at the Western New York Exhibition at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery. In addition to numerous one-man and group exhibits extending throughout the Northeast and Canada, Wise’s work was included in “The Wayward Muse, A Historical Survey of Painting in Buffalo,” at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, in 1987.

He retired from Buffalo State in 1992. In 1994 the Burchfield-Penney Art Center presented a show of his work, titled “Interiors.” The Burchfield-Penney Art Center holds over 40 of Wise’s paintings and drawings in their permanent collection.

Information courtesy of Dean Brownrout