Roland Reiss (May 15, 1929– December 13, 2020) was an American artist known for his miniature

tableaux The International Conference on Automated Reasoning with Analytic Tableaux and Related Methods (TABLEAUX) is an annual international academic conference that deals with all aspects of automated reasoning with analytic tableaux. Periodically, it joi ...

and paintings.

Early life, education and military service

Roland Reiss was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1929, during the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

. He moved with his family at age 13 to

Pomona, California Pomona is a city in Los Angeles County, California. Pomona is located in the Pomona Valley, between the Inland Empire and the San Gabriel Valley. At the 2020 census, the city's population was 151,713. The main campus of California State Polyte ...

. While he attended Pomona High School, he was inspired to become an artist after hearing

Millard Sheets Millard Owen Sheets (June 24, 1907 – March 31, 1989) was an American artist, teacher, and architectural designer. He was one of the earliest of the California Scene Painting artists and helped define the art movement. Many of his large-scale bu ...

speak on art. He later studied art at

Mt. San Antonio College Mt. San Antonio College (Mt. SAC) is a public community college in southern California, located in Walnut in eastern Los Angeles County. It offers more than 260 degree and certificate programs, 25 support programs, and more than 50 studen ...

and

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

. He served in the US Army as a Sergeant First Class. After winning a national art price he managed forty artists working at Camp Roberts.

Artistic career

Reiss began his art career as an

abstract painter Abstract art uses visual language of shape, form, color and line to create a composition which may exist with a degree of independence from visual references in the world. Western art had been, from the Renaissance up to the middle of the 19t ...

. In the 1960s he shifted to working with plastics in order "to move away from the brushstrokes, paint, and canvas of

Abstract Expressionists Abstract expressionism is a post–World War II art movement in American painting, developed in New York City in the 1940s. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve international influence and put New York at the center of the ...

. The technical elements of painting could be replaced with new surfaces, colors, textures, reflectivities, and physical strength." By the 1970s Reiss was producing miniature tableaux, using plexiglass to encase or divide the scene. These gained Reiss significant critical attention. In the 1990s Reiss moved back to painting. He spent the last 15 years if his career creating large flower paintings.

Educational career

In 1956, Reiss began teaching painting at the

University of Colorado Boulder The University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder, CU, or Colorado) is a public research university in Boulder, Colorado. Founded in 1876, five months before Colorado became a state, it is the flagship university of the University of Colorado syst ...

. In 1971, he was hired at

Claremont Graduate University The Claremont Graduate University (CGU) is a private, all-graduate research university in Claremont, California. Founded in 1925, CGU is a member of the Claremont Colleges which includes five undergraduate (Pomona College, Claremont McKenna Co ...

, where he headed the art department for 30 years. The university established an endowed chair in art in his name in 2010. In his retirement, he directed Painting's Edge, a summer artist's residency for Idyllwild Arts from 2000 to 2007. In 2009, he received the

College Art Association The College Art Association of America (CAA) is the principal organization in the United States for professionals in the visual arts, from students to art historians to emeritus faculty. Founded in 1911, it "promotes these arts and their understa ...

Award for the Distinguished Teaching of Art.

Personal life

In 1952 Reiss Married Betty Ravenscroft, with whom he had six children. In 1991 he married the artist Dawn Arrowsmith.

Recognitions and Notable Shows

Reiss was included in the 1975

Whitney Biennial The Whitney Biennial is a biennial exhibition of contemporary American art, typically by young and lesser known artists, on display at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, United States. The event began as an annual exhibition in ...

and in

Documenta 7 ''documenta 7'' was the seventh edition of documenta, a quinquennial contemporary art exhibition. It was held between 19 June and 28 October 1982 in Kassel, West Germany. The artistic director was Rudi Fuchs Rudolf Herman "Rudi" Fuchs (born ...

, held in 1982. He has been the recipient of four grants from the

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal ...

and many prizes and awards. He received fourteen solo museum exhibitions, among them ''The Dancing Lessons: 12 Sculptures'' (1977) at the

Los Angeles County Museum of Art The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is an art museum located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile, Los Angeles, California, Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles. LACMA is on Museum Row, adjacent to the La Brea Tar Pits (George C. Pa ...

. Reiss' personal papers are held by the

Smithsonian Archives of American Art The Archives of American Art is the largest collection of primary resources documenting the history of the visual arts in the United States. More than 20 million items of original material are housed in the Archives' research centers in Washingt ...

Collections

Whitney Museum of Art The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is an art museum in the Meatpacking District and West Village neighborhoods of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded in 1930 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–1942), ...

, New York *

Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA) is a contemporary art museum with two locations in greater Los Angeles, California. The main branch is located on Grand Avenue in Downtown Los Angeles, near the Walt Disney Concert Hall. MOCA's o ...

Hammer Museum The Hammer Museum, which is affiliated with the University of California, Los Angeles, is an art museum and cultural center known for its artist-centric and progressive array of exhibitions and public programs. Founded in 1990 by the entrepreneur- ...

Benton Museum of Art Pomona CollegeClaremont Lewis Museum of Art
* Orange County Museum of Art

References

External links

Official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Reiss, Roland 1929 births 2020 deaths Artists from Chicago University of California, Los Angeles alumni Claremont Graduate University faculty