Theodoros Stamos

ACA Galleries is pleased to announce Theodoros Stamos (1922 – 1997). This survey includes works from the 1940s to the 1990s and shows how the natural world was a source of inspiration and imagery throughout his career.

 

Theodoros Stamos (1922-1997), the youngest member of the first generation of Abstract Expressionists, was born in New York to Greek parents. In 1936 he won a scholarship to attend American Artists School where he studied sculpture until 1939 when he left to focus on painting. Beginning in 1941 he ran a frame shop where he met Arshile Gorky who played an influential role in his early biomorphic paintings. In 1943 Stamos had his first solo exhibition at the Wakefield Gallery, which was run by Betty Parsons. During this period he also met Adolph Gottlieb and Barnett Newman who wrote about Stamos’ painting with great praise.

 

Stamos’ work was included in the Whitney Annual in 1945 and the following year the Museum of Modern Art purchased a painting. In 1947 he met Peggy Guggenheim and Mark Rothko, who would become close friends. His first solo museum show was at The Duncan Phillips Collection, Washington DC in 1950 and that year he also taught at Black Mountain College. From 1955 through 1977 he was an instructor at the Art Students League. Starting in 1970 he made yearly trips to the island of Lefkada in Greece, which influenced his work for the rest of his life.

 

Stamos is in numerous international museum collections including Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY; Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada; The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL; Bayerische Staatsgemaldesammlung, Staatsgalerie Moderner Kunst, Munich, Germany; The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY; Museu d’Arte Moderno, Rio de Jenairo, Brazil; The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; Museum Modernor Kunst, Vienna, Austria; National Picture Gallery, Athens, Greece National Pinacotek, Athens, Greece, The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY; Tel Aviv Museum, Tel Aviv, Israel; Whitney Museum of Art, New York, NY among others.