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P R E S S > N E W Y
O R K C I T Y P R
E S S , 1 9 3 4 - 1 9 4 5
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Excerpts
From Paris Press, 1928-1933 |
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The Paintings
of Ary Stillman- Chicago Tribune,
By B.J.Kospoth, December 1928 |
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True art
Brings Original Touch in Our Lives, Asserts H.Ary Stillman
- The Sioux City Tribune, By H.Ary Stillman, October 26,
1929 |
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Ary Stillman's
American Indians - Chicago Sunday
Tribune (Paris Edition), By B.J.Kospoth, Sunday, November
9, 1930 |
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Excerpts
From New York City Press, 1934-1945 |
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Excerpts
From New York City Press About Ary & Music, 1946-1952 |
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A Rich Life
of Painting - Houston Chronicle, March
3, 1968 |
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The
2 Realities of Ary Stillman -
Houston Post, By Eleanor Freed |
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Stillman
Art Portrays 'Inner Reality' - San
Antonio Light, By Marcia Goren Weser, October 21, 1990 |
"Ary Stillman, well known
artist, has just returned to New York after a sojourn of twelve
years in Europe, and is holding a one-man show at the Midtown
Galleries, 559 Fifth Avenue; this exhibition opened April
18th and will continue through May 5th.
"This is Stillmans first exhibition in New York since his
return from Paris. For most of twelve years he has been living
in Germany, Italy, Palestine, France, and other parts of the world.
He has studied the old masters of Italy and the new masters of
Paris and has evolved an extremely personal style.
"Stillman was born in Russia and at an early age settled in Iowa
where he went into the jewelry business. Paralleling the great
Renaissance artists, he went from his apprenticeship into the
study of painting. This interest took him to New York where
he studied at the National Academy of Design. From the Academy
he went to Europe where he has been for the last twelve years,
except for a trip back to paint the Mexican Indians. This present
exhibition of Stillmans reveals the mature results of his
years of study and work and should bring him the same recognition
in this country that he has won in his many exhibitions in Paris.
He had one-man exhibitions at the Gallerie Zak and at the Gallerie
Bernheim Jeune in Paris and has exhibited in all the important
group shows held there."
The Official Metropolitan Guide
New York
April 1934
"Stillman has developed a style of singular sensitiveness
and charm. Avoiding alike the sharp edges or heavy outline so
much in evidence in the work around him, he conceives his volumes
in mass and as intimately related to their surroundings. As he
has a feeling for tone and subtly modulated color, his canvases
take on an air of meditative aloofness that invests even commonplace
accessories with a touch of distinction. Whether dealing with
a kitchen interior or a nude, or with one of his various portraits,
he reveals a distinct and alluring personality."
The New York Sun
April 26, 1934
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The Kitchen
1932
oil on canvas
24 x 20
Green Room
University of Houston,
Moores School of Music, TX |
'Ary Stillman, whose paintings are being exhibited
at the Midtown
Gallery, also recalls the French Impressionists. But only
if you can imagine them with a dash of Old Master will you have
Stillman. His work has a charm, a lyricism, a luminosity, which
are most exciting. One piece in particular, "Interior, Kitchen"
is a marvel of beautiful lighting. His pieces make use of rich,
velvety blacks, glowing blues, poignant greys."
The New York World Telegram
April 21, 1934
"
. He traveled through Spain, Italy and France, looked
at and studied the Primitives, the painters and tapestry makers
of the early Renaissance and the pre-Renaissance period. From
these painters and tapestry makers and from the Japanese print-makers,
he extracted the elements of his own art and sought with this
knowledge to create something which would have the impress of
his own emotions, his own personality
For 12 years he lived, studied and toiled abroad, until he had
achieved an approximation to his goal, which was to transfer onto
canvas the personal vision of Ary Stillman in the personal technique
to which he had struggled, but informed with the knowledge he
had gained from the study of those masters of the past to whom
he had spiritual kinship.
"His problems included the problem of making the colors on the
flat canvas suggest depth and contour, so that the objects would
seem to grow out of the canvas. His problems also included the
one of extracting all the wealth and the richness and the color
out of a limited palette, a palette limited entirely to earth
colors.
.I realized as I looked at these pictures that here was
a fresh talent and as I looked I felt that this Stillman painted
as if he had crushed gems into concrete and put that strange,
though solid, mixture on his canvas in lieu of paint."
Jewish Daily Bulletin
New York City
April 1934
"His familiar impressionist technique is more suited to landscape
than portraits, it would seem. It makes a particularly apt medium
for conveying the rich, lush color and shimmering warmth of the
spring countryside. Yet the portraits are hardly less successful.
Curiously he manages to give these compositions of loosely applied
paint surprising strength and solidity. Each sitter emerges above
the paint a complete individual, given depth literally and figuratively
by a technique which cleverly avoids the distortions of expressionism
and the slickness of straight portraiture."
The New York World Telegram
March 16, 1935
"In the paintings by Ary Stillman now on view at the Guild
Gallery the impressionistic style of the artist may be seen
in a dozen or more studies of crowds. The swarming effect of a
multitude of faces and figures is particularly susceptible to
his personal handling of material, and he is plainly fascinated
by the patterns that evolve from the moving masses at such focal
points in a city as "Times Square". In "Theatre Hour"
with its converging lines of traffic, crowded streets and palpitating
lights he has successfully created his scene, without the definite
definition of a single object, except perhaps a lamp post in the
foreground. His meaning, however, comes through the misty atmosphere
and the scene is alive with atmospheric suggestion
. "Outdoor
Theatre at Washington Square", in which the light from the stage
strikes the crowd, shows again his favorite subject, and it is
a dramatic and sympathetic treatment of the theme."
The Art News
April 3, 1937
"Ary Stillman, who is having a showing at the Guild,
37 West 57th Street, derives largely of course from the last century.
His "Flowers" for example is suggestive of the poetical approach
of Redon, but in the main his work is keyed to a subdued impressionism
subdued in color, but still primarily concerned with effects
of light and atmosphere, not that design in the larger sense is
overlooked. But whatever his theme, he lends the guiding hand
of suggestion to the imagination, which gives his work a generally
charming and personal appeal. "Theater Hour" at Broadways
liveliest stretch; "The Bowery at Coney Island" to mention but
one of his glamorous versions of that rather rowdy and garish
resort, seem particularly pleasing. You get the distilled essence
of it all without its vulgar reality, which last calls for sturdy
stomachs indeed."
The New York Sun
March 27, 1937
"This years exhibit of paintings by Ary Stillman at the Guild
Art Gallery shows a further preoccupation with the teeming
life of the citys amusement seekers. Mr. Stillman does not
emphasize the blare of color that surrounds the crowds on Broadway
or at Coney Island. He is absorbed rather in rendering the pulse-bat
of the whole moving human spectacle. He does this by keeping the
whole canvas in a virtual monotone state, within which he observes
the most subtle distinctions in atmosphere and movement."
The New York Post
March 27, 1937
"Ary Stillmans paintings at the Babcock
Galleries show intensive study and are marked by the rich
light which seems to glow from their oscillated surface. Almost
Rembrandtesque is the gold which illuminates the faces and hands
of his Chess Players, while the evanescent atmosphere of a railroad
station is well indicated in the swiftly executed "Between
Train Time." The glare of "Times Square at Night,"
the brilliant stress of the spotlight on "Night of Stars,"
"Madison Square Garden," and the festive shimmer of
rich tones in "The Mardigras" all attest to the accomplishment
of this artist as do a series of heads which are brief but well
planned in quietly charming color schemes."
The Art News
May 1939
"Ary Stillman, at the Babcock
Gallery, is holding an exhibition of paintings which indicate
that he has found the range of color and the technical ideology
which correspond to his conceptions. He uses a rich impasto of
muted color which has something of the character of a mosaic,
colors not so much blended as set into the pattern producing net
luminosity but a latent richness. Light is an important factor
in his work, intensifying his color and setting the key of each
canvas. "Night of Stars" is an outstanding example of the artists
ability to heighten an imaginative idea through light pattern.
There is nothing exotic in his roster of subjects deserted
factories, Times Square, Coney Island or the cafeteria crowds
it is the individual reaction to these familiar themes
set down in personal language that gives the work its particular
quality."
The New York Journal and American
May 7, 1939
(One-man show at Andre
Seligmann Gallery) "
.Twenty-five compositions are
on view, all of them reaching heights of technique he never touched
before. For one thing, theyre infinitely more vigorous.
The pigment is heavy, yet laid on with verve. Colors are clear
and vibrant. Form emerges more solidly too. The fabric of Stillmans
pictures has become sensuously appealing. In the picture called
"Thieves Market" for instance, you get this richness of
surface. In "Fruit Market" there is beautiful relationship between
figures, architecture and atmosphere. "Out of Doors" is full of
a luminous glow with bright flower foreground and deep perspective
developed in perfect relation to each other."
The New York World Telegram
December 5, 1942
"
.Read what you can from Ary Stillmans treatment
of crowds as harmonious with their surroundings as the
formless greeneries of his landscapes are integral parts of the
woods they form. Be entranced by his presentation of Massan Street,
financial district, which is not a J.P. Morgan view of stone vaults,
but a romantic, mysterious bit of man-made elegance. Likewise
his city squares, of which there are two, have all the élan
of painting another generation ever had, plus the dignity of detachment
from too immediate consideration of the scene."
Cue Magazine
December 12, 1942
(Group Show at Andre Seligmann Gallery)
.One of the best
pictures among the 30 included is by Ary Stillman, modest, impressionist
painter, who has been around for years and only within the past
season or two come out of his shell. "Summer Cottage", it is called,
and in its quiet, unassuming way it is one of the most distinguished
paintings of an interior that I have ever seen. It has something
of a Bonnard quality (except that I like it much better than any
Bonnard I ever saw.) The delicate blue floor, the imaginative
handling of the rug pattern, the arrangement of spatial areas,
the delicacy of taste of the whole are extremely satisfying."
The New York World Telegram
April 10, 1943
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Fishing Village
1945
oil on canvas
30 x 42
The Butler Institute of
American Art, OH |
(Group Show at Macbeth Gallery)
.. "Among the
oils is Ary Stillmans heavily pigmented "Fishing Village,"
a poem in subtle color."
Art Digest
August 1, 1945
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