Thomas Boutis (1922 – 2018) was an American artist, known as an
abstract expressionist
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 ...
with a love of color. He primarily worked in painting, drawing,
collage
Collage (, from the french: coller, "to glue" or "to stick together";) is a technique of art creation, primarily used in the visual arts, but in music too, by which art results from an assemblage of different forms, thus creating a new whole. ...
, watercolor, and printmaking.
Biography
Tom Boutis was born in 1922 in New York City to parents from
Kastoria
Kastoria ( el, Καστοριά, ''Kastoriá'' ) is a city in northern Greece in the modern regions of Greece, region of Western Macedonia. It is the capital of Kastoria (regional unit), Kastoria regional unit, in the Geographic regions of Gree ...
,
Greece
Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...
.
He worked as a
Federal Art Project
The Federal Art Project (1935–1943) was a New Deal program to fund the visual arts in the United States. Under national director Holger Cahill, it was one of five Federal Project Number One projects sponsored by the Works Progress Administrati ...
artist. Boutis was drafted by the United States Army in 1943.
Boutis attended
Cooper Union
The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art (Cooper Union) is a private college at Cooper Square in New York City. Peter Cooper founded the institution in 1859 after learning about the government-supported École Polytechnique in ...
and graduated in 1948.
He was a friend of
Vincent DaCosta Smith and in the early 1950s Boutis influenced Smith's early career as an artist.
His first solo art show was in January 1955 at
Zabriskie Gallery
The Zabriskie Gallery was founded in New York City by Virginia Zabriskie in 1954.
Early years
Virginia Zabriskie started the art gallery with a one-dollar down payment. It had formerly been the Korman Gallery, a cooperative that included the pai ...
in New York City.
In the 1950s, with artists from the
E 10th Street co-op movement, he established the Area Gallery in New York City which was in operation from 1958 until 1965.
The original members of Area Gallery were Tom Boutis, alongside artists John Ireland Collins,
Charles Steven DuBack, Joe Fiore, Bernard Langlais,
Ed Moses, Daphne Mumford, and Paul Yakovenko.
Alongside many of the artist from Area Gallery, Boutis was a founding member of the artist-run Landmark Gallery at 469
Broome Street
Broome Street is an east–west street in Lower Manhattan. It runs nearly the full width of Manhattan island, from Hudson Street in the west to Lewis Street in the east, near the entrance to the Williamsburg Bridge. The street is interrupted in ...
in
SoHo
Soho is an area of the City of Westminster, part of the West End of London. Originally a fashionable district for the aristocracy, it has been one of the main entertainment districts in the capital since the 19th century.
The area was develop ...
, in operation from 1972 until 1982.
Boutis was a National Academician and member of the
National Academy of Design
The National Academy of Design is an honorary association of American artists, founded in New York City in 1825 by Samuel Morse, Asher Durand, Thomas Cole, Martin E. Thompson, Charles Cushing Wright, Ithiel Town, and others "to promote the fin ...
, joining in 1995.
Boutis died on October 29, 2018 at the age of 96.
His work is included in many public museum collections, including
Art Institute of Chicago
The Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago's Grant Park, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the world. Recognized for its curatorial efforts and popularity among visitors, the museum hosts approximately 1.5 mill ...
, 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 ...
archives, 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 ...
,
among others.
References
Further reading
*
External links
Tom Boutis papers, 1951-1979 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 ...
, Smithsonian Institution
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1922 births
2018 deaths
Abstract expressionist artists
Artists from New York City
Federal Art Project artists
Cooper Union alumni
National Academy of Design members
American people of Greek descent
United States Army personnel of World War II