ABOUT THE ARTIST
Russian American, 1891 - 1967
Ary Stillman was born in Hretzk, Belarus (White Russia) in 1891 He immigrated to America at the age of 16, initially living with his family in Sioux City, Iowa, but by 1912 he had resumed his formal art education, attending the Art Institute of Chicago.
In the late 1930s, Stillman produced works for the WPA under the Federal Art Project and was a member of the Artists’ Union and the American Artists’ Congress. Stillman knew Arshile Gorky, Byron Browne, Adolphe Gottlieb and many other important artists of his day. Stillman was also a member of the Society of Independent Artists (SIA).
Starting in 1944, Stillman began to exhibit with the Federation of Modern Painters and Sculptors that included Gottlieb, Mark Rothko and Barnett Newman. His abstract work from this period was shown in New York’s most influential galleries including Tanager Gallery, the Saltpeter Gallery, and the Mortimer Brandt Gallery, and received important reviews by the critics of the day.
From 1949 to 1954, annual exhibits at the Bertha Schaeffer Gallery established Stillman as part of the Schaefer stable. Shortly thereafter, Stillman became a prominent member of the Eighth Street Club, joining artists who would form the genesis of what would soon be referred to as the New York School.
Stillman worked in New York until the mid-1950s when he and his wife, Frances, moved to Cuernavaca, Mexico, where they lived from 1957 until 1962. Failing health forced him to return to the United States; he died in Houston, Texas in 1967.
Selected Solo Exhibitions:
Exposition Stillman, Gallerie Bernheim-Jeune, Paris, December 15 - 28, 1928; Ary Stillman, Midtown Galleries, New York, April 18 - May 15, 1934; Paintings: Ary Stillman, Macbeth Gallery, New York, February 18 – March 9, 1946; various exhibitions, Bertha Schaefer Gallery, New York, January 1949 – February 1954; Ary Stillman Retrospective, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, February 23 – March 26, 1972.
Stillman’s works are in 44 museum collections across the country.