Gouaches (1961-1966)
We read everything on pre-Cortez times that we could find. Prescott's history of the conquest of Mexico and Peru; Bernal Diaz del Castillo, who described so quaintly and so graphically the country and the people and the details of the coming of the Spaniards, as one of Cortez' men; more recent writers on the culture of the Aztecs, the Mayans, the Incas. Also general mythology such as the Golden Bough, poetry such as The White Pony, an anthology of Chinese poetry from 1100 B.C. through 1921. All this fired Ary's imagination, and what with improved physical condition, greater peace of mind, and new stimuli to inspire him, Ary's incredibly rich imagination began to reassert itself. Now, he fantasized, he had discovered through excavating among ancient ruins, a "palace of the prince" and everything that poured forth as he sat in the arm-chair in the corner of the verandah was something he carried away from the walls of this ancient palace. So in 1960 he began a series of gouaches, which in creativeness, in spontaneity, in line and form are perhaps the culmination, or at least the beginning of the culmination of his entire career as a non-representational painter. Ary felt that himself, "I am a new Ary" he would say. He even decided that this new Ary should have his name on the paintings rather than the old Stillman whose depression he had fought off. So one will find that practically all of the gouaches and many of the later canvases bear the name "Ary." Later on, after we left Mexico, he drifted back into signing "Stillman" again.
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Dream
c.1961-1966,
gouache on paper,
[Foundation Collection]
Dualist Motif
from Temple
c.1961-1966,
gouache on paper,
[Foundation Collection]
Echo
c.1961-1966,
gouache on paper,
[Foundation Collection]
Enchantment
c.1961-1966,
gouache on paper,
[Museum Collection]
Fantasy
c.1961-1966,
gouache on paper,
[Foundation Collection]
Fantasy
c.1961-1966,
gouache on paper,
[Foundation Collection]
Fantasy in
Green and Black
c.1961-1966,
gouache on paper,
[Foundation Collection]
Untitled
c.1961-1966,
gouache on paper,
[Foundation Collection]
Forms in Space
c.1961-1966,
gouache on paper,
13 x 19 1/2 in.,
[Private Collection]
Four Images
1966,
gouache on paper,
18 x 13 in.,
[Foundation Collection]
Four Images
c.1961-1966,
gouache on paper,
25 x 20 in.,
[Museum Collection]
From an
Aztec Temple
c.1961-1966,
gouache on paper,
[Foundation Collection]
From the Book
of Death #3
c.1961-1966,
gouache on paper,
[Private Collection]
From the Book
of Death
1962,
gouache on paper,
18 x 13 1/2 in.,
[Museum Collection]
From the Book
of Records
c.1961-1966,
gouache on paper,
[Foundation Collection]
From the Book
of Wisdom #1
c.1961-1966,
gouache on paper,
[Foundation Collection]
From the Book
of Wisdom #2
c.1961-1966,
gouache on paper,
[Foundation Collection]
From the Temple
of the Young Prince
1961,
gouache on paper,
22 x 21 in.,
[Museum Collection]
Gay Memory
c.1961-1966,
gouache on paper,
24 x 19 in.,
[Private Collection]
Horizontal
c.1961-1966,
gouache on paper,
[Foundation Collection]
In the Beginning
1964,
gouache on paper,
[Museum Collection]
In the Beginning #3
c.1961-1966,
gouache on paper,
[Foundation Collection]
In the Beginning #4
c.1961-1966,
gouache on paper,
[Foundation Collection]
In the Beginning #5
c.1961-1966,
gouache on paper,
[Foundation Collection]
Indian Motif #2
1962,
gouache on paper,
[Foundation Collection]
Interplay
c.1961-1966,
gouache on paper,
[Foundation Collection]
Interplay #2
c.1961-1966,
gouache on paper,
[Foundation Collection]
Layout for Mural
in a Temple
c.1961-1966,
gouache on paper,
[Foundation Collection]
Leyenda #1
c.1961-1966,
gouache on paper,
[Foundation Collection]
Leyenda #2
c.1961-1966,
gouache on paper,
[Foundation Collection]
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