12 Facts About William Pajaud

William Etienne "Bill" Pajaud was an African-American artist, primarily working in watercolor, known for his paintings exploring themes of jazz.

William Pajaud was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, and died in Los Angeles, California, on June 16,2015, at the age of 89.

William Pajaud was the curator of the Golden State Mutual Life Insurance Fine Art Collection.

William Pajaud's father was a jazz musician, whose main source of income was working at funerals.

William Pajaud's mother was a trained pharmacist, but, as an African American woman, found it difficult to find work.

William Pajaud moved to Chicago in the early 1940s, where he took work as a sign painter and designer.

William Pajaud was a member of the Society of Graphic Designers, the Los Angeles County Art Association, and the National Watercolor Society, of which he served as president from 1974 to 1975.

William Pajaud was part of the artists' collective Eleven Associated.

William Pajaud's watercolors featured imagery inspired by his childhood in New Orleans and his adult life in Chicago and Los Angeles: full-figured African American women, jazz funerals, street scenes.

William Pajaud's work is in the collections of the Pushkin Museum, the Amistad Research Center, the Las Vegas Art Museum, the California African American Museum, the Hunter Museum and the National Museum of American Art.

William Pajaud was the adviser for the acquisition of artworks for the black-owned Golden State Mutual Life Insurance Company, for whom he had worked since 1957 in design and public relations.

William Pajaud stated that the collection was the thing of which he was proudest in his career.