Anthony Apesos (born 1953) is an American painter and professor of Fine Arts at the

Art Institute of Boston Lesley University is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It is accredited by the New England Commission of Higher Education. As of 2018-19 Lesley University enrolled 6,593 students (2,707 undergraduate and 3,886 graduate). History ...

Lesley University Lesley University is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It is accredited by the New England Commission of Higher Education. As of 2018-19 Lesley University enrolled 6,593 students (2,707 undergraduate and 3,886 graduate). History ...

Biography

Apesos was born on 6 January 1953 in

Newark, New Jersey Newark ( , ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of New Jersey and the seat of Essex County and the second largest city within the New York metropolitan area.Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

, where his parents were restaurateurs. Apesos attended

The Episcopal Academy The Episcopal Academy, founded in 1785, is a private, co-educational school for grades Pre-K through 12 based in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania. Prior to 2008, the main campus was located in Merion Station and the satellite campus was located in D ...

from 1965 to 1972, after which he received his A.B. at

Vassar College Vassar College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States, closely follo ...

in Religion. Apesos studied painting under Morris Blackburn, Arthur de Costa, Ben Kamahira, and Sidney Goodman at the

Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) is a museum and private art school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts is a graduate program associated with Bard College that grants Master of Fine Arts degrees. Founded in 1981, Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts (otherwise known as the Bard MFA program) is a nontraditi ...

Bard College Bard College is a private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. The campus overlooks the Hudson River and Catskill Mountains, and is within the Hudson River Historic ...

. In 1992, Apesos moved to Boston, and became chair of the Fine Arts department at the

(now part of

). Apesos founded AIB's M.F.A. program, and currently is professor of Fine Arts.

Work

Apesos's painting, while indebted to the American realist tradition, is informed by a fascination with mythology and archetypical themes; in this respect, his work exhibits striking parallels with the visual art of the Romantic poet and artist

William Blake William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his life, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual art of the Romantic Age. ...

. Technically, Apesos draws upon the traditions of late Renaissance painting, in particular that of the Venetian masters; his work is characterized by the employment of opalescent scumbles (translucent layers of pigment placed over solid colors to produce effects of depth and texture for the viewer), and inventive, often unsettling modes of composition in which figures and background are juxtaposed in simultaneously traditional and unfamiliar ways.

Representative paintings

''Snow and Milk''
here, the binary opposition of white and black, cold and hot, is juxtaposed against the traditional artistic figure of the female nude, providing a symbolic matrix within which to consider the way that Western art has objectified as well as celebrated femininity and the body in general.
''Recipe''
composed with a fundamental palette of red, black, and white, and evoking both ancient pictorial traditions (the unveiling of the Vestal Virgin) as well as archetypal symbolism (earth and water, dark and light) to reflect upon the fundamental and yet mysterious nature of human reproduction, focused here upon the powerful and compositionally-central figure of the mother.

Exhibits, presentations, and publications

*''Three Fabulists: Visions of Fact and Fantasy'', New Arts Center (

Newton Newton most commonly refers to: * Isaac Newton (1642–1726/1727), English scientist * Newton (unit), SI unit of force named after Isaac Newton Newton may also refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Newton'' (film), a 2017 Indian film * Newton ( ...

), April 2000. *''Osiris Paintings'', Newton Free Library, April 2001. *''Italian Perspectives'', Copley Gallery (

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

), October–November 2002. *''Paintings from Tony Apesos'',

Holderness School , established = 1879 , type = Private high school , locale = , religion = Episcopal , image = , grades =9-12, PG , head_name = Headmaster , head = R. Phillip Peck , city = Holderness , state = New Hampshire , country = USA , students ...

, January–February 2006. *"Interpreting Facture," College Art Association,

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

, February 2002.
''Anatomy for Artists: A New Approach to Discovering, Learning and Remembering the Body''
(North Light Press, 2007).

Reviews

*Joanne Silver, "Superlative 'Fabulists'." ''Boston Herald'', 12 May 2000 *Emily Porter, "Re-membering Myth", ''The Harvard Crimson'', 20 April 2001 *John Stephen Dwyer,
Anthony Apesos: artist, teacher, man for all seasons
, ''Boston lowbrow'', 22 February 2010

External links

*Faculty listing fro

*Anthony Apesos' blo

*Anthony Apesos' websit

{{DEFAULTSORT:Apesos, Anthony 1953 births Living people 20th-century American painters 20th-century American male artists American male painters 21st-century American painters 21st-century American male artists American art educators Vassar College alumni Episcopal Academy alumni