Clinton Adams (December 11, 1918 – May 13, 2002) was an American

art Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas. There is no generally agreed definition of wha ...

ist and art historian. He was known for his contributions to the field of lithography.

Biography

Adams was born in

Glendale, California Glendale is a city in the San Fernando Valley and Verdugo Mountains regions of Los Angeles County, California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents ac ...

. He worked in the

art department Art department in filmmaking terms means the section of a production's crew concerned with visual artistry. Working under the supervision of the production designer and/or art director, the art department is responsible for arranging the overa ...

of the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a Normal school, teachers colle ...

, (UCLA) but eventually left to serve in the military. He returned to UCLA in 1946. From 1961 to 1976, he was the Dean of the

University of New Mexico The University of New Mexico (UNM; es, Universidad de Nuevo México) is a public research university in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Founded in 1889, it is the state's flagship academic institution and the largest by enrollment, with over 25, ...

. As a

painter Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ...

, Adams worked in several mediums, including

oil An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) & lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturate ...

, acrylic,

watercolor painting Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (British English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin ''aqua'' "water"), is a painting method”Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to ...

, and

egg tempera Tempera (), also known as egg tempera, is a permanent, fast-drying painting medium consisting of colored pigments mixed with a water-soluble binder medium, usually glutinous material such as egg yolk. Tempera also refers to the paintings don ...

. He also produced

lithograph Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone ( lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by the German ...

s, and was the co-author of ''The Tamarind Book of Lithography'' (1971), an important description of the process. Among his other writings is ''American Lithographers'' (1987), a history of the art in the United States from 1900 to 1960. Adams received the Governor's Award for "Outstanding Contributions to the Arts of New Mexico" in 1985, and in 1992 he became a 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 f ...

. He died of liver cancer on May 13, 2002, in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

References

External links

Clinton Adams papers, 1934-2002
from 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 Washing ...

Oral history interview with Clinton Adams, 1974 Mar. 29
from the Archives of American Art
Oral history interview with Clinton Adams, 1995 Aug. 2-3
a second interview from the Archives of American Art {{DEFAULTSORT:Adams, Clinton 1918 births 2002 deaths American art historians American lithographers Deaths from liver cancer Writers from Glendale, California 20th-century American historians American male non-fiction writers UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture faculty University of New Mexico faculty Deaths from cancer in New Mexico American military personnel of World War II 20th-century American male writers Historians from California 20th-century lithographers