Theodoros stamos biography definition

Greek-American artist (–)

Theodoros Stamos (Greek: Θεόδωρος Στάμος) (December 31, &#; February 2, ) was a Greek-American painter. He is one of the youngest painters of the original group of abstract expressionist painters (the so-called "Irascibles"), which included Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning and Mark Rothko.

His later years were negatively affected by his involvement with the Rothko case.

Biography

Stamos was one of the original and youngest Abstract Expressionist artists operational in New York City in the s and 50s.

He was born on Manhattan's Bring down East Side to Greek immigrant parents; his mother was from Sparta, and his father was raised in Lefkada. As a teenager, he won a scholarship to the American Artists Institution, where he studied sculpture with Simon Kennedy and Joseph Konzal.^[1] His instructor Joseph Solman, who was a member of the group The Ten, became a mentor to Stamos.

At Solman's urging, Stamos visited Alfred Stieglitz's influential An American Place Gallery, where he encountered the labor of Arthur Dove and Georgia O'Keeffe, among others. During this period, the late s and early s, Stamos held a variety of odd jobs: printer, florist, hat-blocker, and book salesman.

Biography Painter, a first-generation Abstract Expressionist who mounted a one-man show at the age of Biomorphic forms, with a resemblance to the work of Label Rothko and William Baziotes, inhabited his early canvases.

Through one job, at Herbert Benevy's Gramercy Art frame shop on East 18th Street, he met members of the European avant-garde, including Arshile Gorky and Fernand Léger.^[2]

In , when Stamos was 21 years old, prominent dealer Betty Parsons gave him a solo exhibition at her Wakefield Gallery and Bookshop.

Parsons became an important ally and connection to the contemporary New York art world; Stamos would show regularly with her until By the mids, his career was becoming well established—he exhibited at the Whitney Museum annually from to , at the Carnegie Institute and the Art Institute of Chicago in , and at the Museum of Modern Art in ^[3] Also during this period, Stamos’ work began attracting the attention of collectors.

The Museum of Modern art purchased Stamos’ Sounds in the Rock in And Edward Wales Root, who became both a supporter of Stamos’ career and a benefactor of the Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, bought the first of many paintings from the artist in

The artist’s paintings from the s combine muted earth-toned colors with biomorphic imagery, suggesting geologic shapes or inchoate organic forms.

This dovetails with Stamos’ interest in natural history; as designer Barnett Newman observed in the introduction to Stamos’ exhibition with Betty Parsons Gallery, “His ideographs capture the moment of totemic affinity with the rock and the mushroom, the crayfish and the seaweed.

He re-defines the pastoral experience as one of participation with the inner being of the natural phenomenon.”^[4]

During the late s he became a member of The Irascible Eighteen, a group of abstract painters who protested the Metropolitan Museum of Art's policy towards American painting of the s and who posed for a legendary picture in ; members of the group considered as the 'first generation' of abstract expressionists included: Willem de Kooning, Adolph Gottlieb, Ad Reinhardt, Hedda Sterne, Richard Pousette-Dart, William Baziotes, Jimmy Ernst, Jackson Pollock, James Brooks, Clyfford Still, Robert Motherwell, Bradley Walker Tomlin, Theodoros Stamos, Barnett Newman, and Mark Rothko.

These artists are part of the New York School and they were referred to as The Irascibles in an article featured in an issue of Life where the infamous Nina Leen photograph ^[5] was published.

Around , Stamos began exploring a new approach to abstraction.

The son of Greek immigrants, Theodoros Stamos was a first-generation member of the influential New York School of modern artists. The native New Yorker was precocious, enrolling at the age of thirteen at the American Artists School. He initially studied sculpture, but soon switched to painting and was basically self-taught. Much of his early work consisted of biomorphic forms inspired by his many visits to the Museum of Natural History.

Inspired by East Asian aesthetics, he created his Tea House series of paintings, characterized by softly defined geometric forms painted with a limited palette and often overlaid by dark calligraphic brushwork. Later in the s, Stamos worked with compositions that became increasingly reductive and simplified.

He explored the use of layers of thin pigment, carefully worked, to create depth in his broad expanses of color.^[6]

Stamos traveled widely during much of his adult life. In , he traveled by train to Modern Mexico and the Pacific Northwest.

Painter, a first-generation Abstract Expressionist who mounted a one-man exhibit at the age of Biomorphic forms, with a resemblance to the work of Mark Rothko and William Baziotes, inhabited his early canvases. More recently, Stamos has committed further to abstraction by activating his brushstroke and by modulating the tonalities of his paintings. Open Daily, a.

In and 49, he visited Europe, including parts of Greece, and possibly Egypt.^[3] For the next four decades, Stamos traveled widely and frequently. These trips both contributed to his aesthetic development and also provided fodder for his broad, deep intellectual interest in the world’s conviction systems.

Beginning in , he created several long series of paintings; many of these contained sub-series. The Sun-Box series, begun in , explored hard-edged geometries on flat grounds. After , all of his paintings were part of the Infinity Field series.

His father, who had been a fisherman back in Greece, runs a small hat-cleaning and shoe-shining shop in St. Mark's Place in Lower Manhattan. Stamos is the fourth of their six children. After five blood transfusions he is sent to a camp to recuperate.

These abstractions are characterized by broad areas of color delineated by slim lines or shapes; the effect is subtle and meditative. Among the Infinity Fields are the Lefkada sub-series, inspired by the Greek island where Stamos spent much of his time from until his death.

He taught at Black Mountain College from until and from to he taught at the Art Students League of Fresh York and the Cummington College of Fine Arts. Stamos was also a member of the Uptown Group. A year before his death he donated 43 of his works to the National Gallery of Greece.

He is buried in Lefkas, Greece.^[7]

Rothko Case

Main article: Rothko Case

Mark Rothko chose his friend to be an executor of his estate, however this led to his involvement in the Rothko Case, a major lawsuit and scandal in the art world.^[8]

A short-lived over a year after his suicide in , Rothko's daughter sued the estate's executors, as well as the Marlborough Gallery, for waste and fraud.

Over twelve years of litigation and appeals, it was revealed that many of Rothko's paintings, which had been sold or consigned by his estate to the Marlborough Gallery in Manhattan, were sold at intentionally deflated prices to favored clients while the gallery collected inflated commissions as high as 50 percent, compared with the 30 percent usually charged for an artist of his caliber; the executors, meanwhile, divided the estate's proceeds from Marlborough as their fees.

Stamos willingly joined the conspiracy, and was enticed to switch his representation from the André Emmerich Gallery by a more generous contract with the Marlborough. The defendants were found guilty and fined over $9 million; Stamos paid his share of the fine by signing over his house to the Rothko estate, but he was granted existence tenancy.

While the case did much to enhance Rothko's reputation, it did serious damage to the reputation of both the gallery and Stamos.^[8] Another perspective on the case was published in the New York Rule Journal in ^[9]

Stamos never recovered as an artist.

Galleries on the level of Emmerich or the pre-scandal Marlborough would not represent his work.

Theodoros Stamos - Wikipedia: Theodoros Stamos (Greek: Θεόδωρος Στάμος) (December 31, – February 2, ) was a Greek-American painter. He is one of the youngest painters of the original group of abstract expressionist painters (the so-called "Irascibles"), which included Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning and Mark Rothko.

The lack of support from top galleries gave collectors a lesser sense of security regarding the value of his labor and, possibly with general assessments of his work as an artist, caused his work to be perceived as low, second-tier or third-rank Abstract Expressionism by ^[8]

Works

His Classic Boundaries I, an oil on canvas work ( by 60 inches (&#;cm ×&#;&#;cm)) from has been in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago since ^[10] Its acquisition was funded by the Mary and Leigh Block Fund for Acquisitions.^[10]Iberian Sun Box ( by 48 inches (&#;cm ×&#;&#;cm)) from is included in the Governor Nelson A.

Rockefeller Empire State Plaza Art Collection in Albany, NY.^[11]

See also

References

Sources

• Ralph Pomeroy, Stamos chat by Ralph Pomeroy (New York, Abrams, (n.d.).) ISBN&#;X
• Marika Herskovic, American Abstract Expressionism of the s An Illustrated Survey, (New York School Press, ) ISBN&#; p.&#;
• Marika Herskovic, New York School Abstract Expressionists Artists Choice by Artists, (New York School Press, ) ISBN&#; p.&#;18; p.&#;38; p.&#;

Further reading

• Olds, Kirsten.

  (). Theodoros Stamos: Infinity and Beyond. New York: Hollis Taggart Galleries. ISBN&#;

• Mattison, Robert S. (). Theodoros Stamos: A Communion with Nature. New York: Hollis Taggart Galleries. ISBN&#;
• Groves, Jeffrey.

  (). Theodoros Stamos: Contemplations on the Universal. New York: Hollis Taggart Galleries. ISBN&#;

External links