Stephen Greene (September 19, 1917 – November 18, 1999) was an American artist known for his abstract paintings and in the 1940s his

social realist Social realism is the term used for work produced by painters, printmakers, photographers, writers and filmmakers that aims to draw attention to the real socio-political conditions of the working class as a means to critique the power structure ...

figure paintings.

Biography

Stephen Greene was born in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. He attended the National Academy School of Art and then the

Art Students League The Art Students League of New York is an art school at American Fine Arts Society, 215 West 57th Street in Manhattan, New York City, New York. The League has historically been known for its broad appeal to both amateurs and professional artists ...

, and earned a BFA and a MA at the

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public university, public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is org ...

Iowa City Iowa City, offically the City of Iowa City is a city in Johnson County, Iowa, United States. It is the home of the University of Iowa and county seat of Johnson County, at the center of the Iowa City Metropolitan Statistical Area. At the time ...

. He studied with

Philip Guston Philip Guston (born Phillip Goldstein, June 27, 1913 – June 7, 1980), was a Canadian American painter, printmaker, muralist and draftsman. Early in his five decade career, muralist David Siquieros described him as one of "the most promising ...

, and they remained friends until Guston's death in 1980. Greene taught at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...

for many years where he was teacher to many well-known figures in the art world including

Frank Stella Frank Philip Stella (born May 12, 1936) is an American painter, sculptor and printmaker, noted for his work in the areas of minimalism and post-painterly abstraction. Stella lives and works in New York City. Biography Frank Stella was born in M ...

and

art critic An art critic is a person who is specialized in analyzing, interpreting, and evaluating art. Their written critiques or reviews contribute to art criticism and they are published in newspapers, magazines, books, exhibition brochures, and catalogue ...

and historian

Michael Fried Michael Martin Fried (born April 12, 1939 in New York City) is a modernist art critic and art historian. He studied at Princeton University and Harvard University and was a Rhodes Scholar at Merton College, Oxford. He is the J.R. Herbert Boone Pr ...

. Greene had more than two dozen solo exhibitions of his work in leading art galleries in New York City. He also taught at the

Art Students League of New York The Art Students League of New York is an art school at 215 West 57th Street in Manhattan, New York City, New York. The League has historically been known for its broad appeal to both amateurs and professional artists. Although artists may stu ...

for several decades. After the mid-1950s and until his death Greene's mature work was related to

abstract expressionism 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 ...

, color field painting and

surrealism Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to l ...

. His work is represented in numerous public collections, including the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

, the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

, the

Whitney Museum of American 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), ...

, the

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a modern and contemporary art museum located in San Francisco, California. A nonprofit organization, SFMOMA holds an internationally recognized collection of modern and contemporary art, and was ...

, the

Brooklyn Museum The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum located in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 1.5 million objects. Located near the Prospect Heights, Crown H ...

, the

Houston Museum of Fine Arts The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), is an art museum located in the Houston Museum District of Houston, Texas. With the recent completion of an eight-year campus redevelopment project, including the opening of the Nancy and Rich Kinder Build ...

, the

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, often referred to as The Guggenheim, is an art museum at 1071 Fifth Avenue on the corner of East 89th Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It is the permanent home of a continuously exp ...

, the

Carnegie Museum of Art The Carnegie Museum of Art, is an art museum in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Originally known as the Department of Fine Arts, Carnegie Institute and was at what is now the Main Branch of the Carnegie Library of Pittsbur ...

, and the

Tate Gallery Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...

in London. He died aged 82 in November 1999 at his home in

Valley Cottage, New York Valley Cottage is a hamlet and census-designated place in the town of Clarkstown, New York, United States. It is located northeast of West Nyack, northwest of Central Nyack east of Bardonia, south of Congers, northwest of Nyack, and west of U ...

, where he had lived for more than 40 years with his wife the novelist

Sigrid de Lima Sigrid de Lima (4 December 1921 – 19 September 1999) was an American novelist. Biography She was born in New York City on 4 December 1921. She was the only child of Agnes de Lima, a writer on education, and Andrew Lang."De Lima, Sigrid", in '' ...

(1921–1999), who died two months earlier. Their daughter, Alison de Lima Greene, is a curator at the

and has published a number of works on

modern art Modern art includes artistic work produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s to the 1970s, and denotes the styles and philosophies of the art produced during that era. The term is usually associated with art in which the tradi ...

.Roberta Smith
"Stephen Greene, 82, Painter With Distinctive Abstract Style"
''The New York Times'', November 29, 1999.

Work

Selected solo exhibitions

*2016: "Stephen Greene: 1960s Abstractions,” Jason McCoy Gallery, New York (March 3–April 30) *1999: "Stephen Greene: Recent Paintings,” University of Massachusetts, Lowell (October 1–November 3) *1997: "Stephen Greene: Images of Suffering & Salvation,” St. Louis Art Museum, St. Louis *1978: “Stephen Greene: A Decade of Painting,” Akron Art Institute, Akron (May 7–June 18); exhibition traveled to The Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts, Columbus; North Caroline Museum of Art, Raleigh; The Currier Gallery of Art, Manchester, New Hampshire. *1977: “Stephen Greene: Fermata,” Galeria Ponce, Mexico City, Mexico (August–September) *1975: “Stephen Greene,” Galleria Dell’Obelisco Rome, Italy *1974: "Stephen Greene, A Retrospective Exhibition of Works Produced from 1963 to 1973", Tyler School of Art, Temple University, Philadelphia (October 18-November 17) *1963: “Stephen Greene: A Retrospective Exhibition of Paintings and Drawings.” Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (March); exhibition traveled to University of Minnesota, Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, Tennessee Fine Arts Center, Des Moines Art Center.

Selected group exhibitions

2014: “Art in the Making: A New Adaptation,” Luther W. Brady Art Gallery, The George Washington University, Washington, DC (May 6–July 17); Reading Public Museum, Reading, PA (August 15–December 18).
2011: “Surface Truths: Abstract Painting of the ‘Sixties,” Norton Simon Museum of Art, Pasadena, CA (March 25–August 15)
2010: “Collecting Biennials,” The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (January 16 – November 28)
2009: “The Lens and the Mirror: Modern Self-Portraits from the Collection,” The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (April–July 12, 2009)
“Abstraction from the Collection,” Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia (October 2–December 13, 2009)
2007: “The Abstract Impulse: Fifty Years of Abstraction at the National Academy, 1956-2006,” National Academy Museum and School of Fine Arts, New York (August 1, 2007 – January 6, 2008)
1997: “View From Abroad: American Realities,” Whitney Museum of American Art.
1995: “47th Annual American Academy Purchase Exhibition,” The American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York
1992: “Painting, Self-Evident Abstraction,” Spoleto, USA and The William Halsey Gallery, Simmons Center for the Arts, College of Charleston, Charleston, SC
1991: “American Life and American Art,” Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
“American Abstraction,” Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, MA
1988: “Recent Acquisitions,” Neuberger Museum, Purchase, NY
1982: “Thirty-fourth Annual Hassam & Speicher Fund Purchase Exhibit,” American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York
“Distinct Visions: Expressionist Sensibilities, Elaine deKooning, Stephen Greene, Grace Hartigan,” Milton and Sally Avery Art Center, Bard College Annandale-on Hudson, NY
“Realism & Realities: The Other Side of American Painting,” Rutgers University Gallery, New Brunswick, NJ
1981: “Decade of Transition: 1940-50,” Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
“156th Annual Exhibition,” National Academy of Design, New York, NY
1979: “The Figurative Tradition,” The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
1977: “American Postwar Painting,” Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
1975: “An American Dream World,” Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
1973: “Twenty Years of American Painting,” Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
“Biennial of Contemporary American Painting and Sculpture,” Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
1972: “Annual Exhibition,” Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
1970: “L’art vivant aux Etats Unis,” Fondation Maeght, Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France
1969: “American Paintings, Watercolors and Drawings from the Museum Collection,” Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
“Seven Decades of American Painting,” Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
1967: “Annual Exhibition,” Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
1963: “Annual Exhibition,” Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
1962: "65th Annual American Exhibition,” Art Institute of Chicago, (January 5 – February 18, 1962)
“Abstract Drawings and Watercolors,” Museu de Arte Moderna, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
1961: “Annual Exhibition,” Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
“Abstract Expressionists and Imagists,” Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
“VI São Paulo Bienal,” São Paulo, Brazil
1959: “Annual Exhibition,” Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
“Museum Director’s Choice,” Baltimore Museum of Art
1958: “Biennial of Religious Art,” Salzburger Museum, Carolino Augusteum
1957: “Annual Exhibition,” Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
“Annual Exhibition,” Los Angeles County Museum, Los Angeles
1956: “Annual Exhibition,” Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
“Recent Drawings USA,” Museum of Modern Art, New York
1955: “The New Decade: 35 American Painters and Sculptors,” Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
“Italy Rediscovered,” Munson Williams Proctor Institute, Utica
1954: “Annual Exhibition: Sculpture, Watercolor, Drawing,” Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
“Le Dessin Contemporarin au États Unis,” Musée National d’Art Moderne, Paris
“Reality and Fantasy,” Walker Art Center, Minneapolis
1952: “Annual Exhibition: Contemporary American Painting,” Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
“65th American Exhibition, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago
“Carnegie International,” Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh
1951: “Annual Exhibition: Sculpture, Watercolor, Drawing,” Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
1950: “American Painting Today,” The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
“Annual Exhibition: Contemporary American Painting,” Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Monographic catalogues and exhibition brochures

*Ashton, Dore, ''Stephen Greene: A Retrospective Exhibition of Paintings and Drawings.'' Washington, D.C., Corcoran Gallery of Art, 1963 *''Stephen Greene: A Decade of Painting,'' Akron: Akron Art Institute, 1978 *Ashton, Dore, et al., ''Stephen Greene: Recent Paintings'', Lowell, MA: University Gallery at UMASS Lowell, 1999. *Fyfe, Joseph and Stephanie Buhmann. ''Stephen Greene: Pleasure Dome''. New York, NY: Jason McCoy, Inc., 2006. *Pease, David et al. ''Stephen Greene, A Retrospective Exhibition of Works Produced from 1963 to 1973'', Philadelphia: Tyler School of Art, Temple University, 1974 *Ponce, Juan García. ''Stephen Greene: Fermata''. Mexico, DF, Galeria Ponce, 1977. *Rose, Barbara. ''Stephen Greene: 25 Years of Drawing'', New York: William Zierler, Inc., 1972 *Robert Storr, “The Light That Did Not Fail – A Source that Never Ran Dry,” and Marshall N. Price, “Between Narrative and Mystery,” ''Stephen Greene 1917-1999''. New York: Jason McCoy Inc., 2008 *Wilkin, Karen. ''Stephen Greene'', Edmonton, Alberta: Edmonton Art Gallery, 1972 *''Stephen Greene: Painter and Mentor'', Andover, MA: Addison Gallery of American Art, 2003

References

External links

''The Independent'', UK
Stephen Greene on ArtnetArchives of American Art
{{DEFAULTSORT:Greene, Stephen 1917 births 1999 deaths Abstract expressionist artists 20th-century American painters American male painters American contemporary painters Painters from New York City Jewish painters Jewish American artists Art Students League of New York alumni People from Valley Cottage, New York 20th-century American Jews 20th-century American male artists