Stephen Greene (artist)


Stephen Greene was an American artist known for his abstract paintings and in the 1940s his social realist figure paintings.

Biography

Stephen Greene was born in New York City. He attended the National Academy School of Art and then the Art Students League, and earned a BFA and a MA at the University of Iowa in Iowa City. He studied with Philip Guston, and they remained friends until Guston's death in 1980.
Greene taught at Princeton University for many years where he was teacher to many well-known figures in the art world including Frank Stella and art critic and historian Michael Fried. Greene had more than two dozen solo exhibitions of his work in leading art galleries in New York City. He also taught at the Art Students League of New York for several decades. After the mid-1950s and until his death Greene's mature work was related to abstract expressionism, color field painting and surrealism. His work is represented in numerous public collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the Houston Museum of Fine Arts, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Carnegie Museum of Art, and the Tate Gallery in London.
He died aged 82 in November 1999 at his home in Valley Cottage, New York, where he had lived for more than 40 years with his wife the novelist Sigrid de Lima, who died two months earlier. Their daughter, Alison de Lima Greene, is a curator at the Houston Museum of Fine Arts and has published a number of works on modern art.

Work

Selected solo exhibitions








2014: “Art in the Making: A New Adaptation,” Luther W. Brady Art Gallery, The George Washington University,
Washington, DC ; Reading Public Museum, Reading, PA.

2011: “Surface Truths: Abstract Painting of the ‘Sixties,” Norton Simon Museum of Art, Pasadena, CA

2010: “Collecting Biennials,” The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

2009: “The Lens and the Mirror: Modern Self-Portraits from the Collection,” The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

“Abstraction from the Collection,” Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia

2007: “The Abstract Impulse: Fifty Years of Abstraction at the National Academy, 1956-2006,” National Academy Museum and School of Fine Arts, New York

1997: “View From Abroad: American Realities,” Whitney Museum of American Art.

1995: “47th Annual American Academy Purchase Exhibition,” The American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York

1992: “Painting, Self-Evident Abstraction,” Spoleto, USA and The William Halsey Gallery, Simmons Center for the Arts, College of Charleston, Charleston, SC

1991: “American Life and American Art,” Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

“American Abstraction,” Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, MA

1988: “Recent Acquisitions,” Neuberger Museum, Purchase, NY

1982: “Thirty-fourth Annual Hassam & Speicher Fund Purchase Exhibit,” American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York

“Distinct Visions: Expressionist Sensibilities, Elaine deKooning, Stephen Greene, Grace Hartigan,” Milton and Sally Avery Art Center, Bard College Annandale-on Hudson, NY

“Realism & Realities: The Other Side of American Painting,” Rutgers University Gallery, New Brunswick, NJ

1981: “Decade of Transition: 1940-50,” Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

“156th Annual Exhibition,” National Academy of Design, New York, NY

1979: “The Figurative Tradition,” The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

1977: “American Postwar Painting,” Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York

1975: “An American Dream World,” Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

1973: “Twenty Years of American Painting,” Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York

“Biennial of Contemporary American Painting and Sculpture,” Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

1972: “Annual Exhibition,” Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

1970: “L’art vivant aux Etats Unis,” Fondation Maeght, Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France

1969: “American Paintings, Watercolors and Drawings from the Museum Collection,” Metropolitan Museum of Art,
New York

“Seven Decades of American Painting,” Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

1967: “Annual Exhibition,” Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

1963: “Annual Exhibition,” Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

1962: "65th Annual American Exhibition,” Art Institute of Chicago,

“Abstract Drawings and Watercolors,” Museu de Arte Moderna, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

1961: “Annual Exhibition,” Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

“Abstract Expressionists and Imagists,” Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York

“VI São Paulo Bienal,” São Paulo, Brazil

1959: “Annual Exhibition,” Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

“Museum Director’s Choice,” Baltimore Museum of Art

1958: “Biennial of Religious Art,” Salzburger Museum, Carolino Augusteum

1957: “Annual Exhibition,” Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

“Annual Exhibition,” Los Angeles County Museum, Los Angeles

1956: “Annual Exhibition,” Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

“Recent Drawings USA,” Museum of Modern Art, New York

1955: “The New Decade: 35 American Painters and Sculptors,” Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

“Italy Rediscovered,” Munson Williams Proctor Institute, Utica

1954: “Annual Exhibition: Sculpture, Watercolor, Drawing,” Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

“Le Dessin Contemporarin au États Unis,” Musée National d’Art Moderne, Paris

“Reality and Fantasy,” Walker Art Center, Minneapolis

1952: “Annual Exhibition: Contemporary American Painting,” Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

“65th American Exhibition, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago

“Carnegie International,” Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh

1951: “Annual Exhibition: Sculpture, Watercolor, Drawing,” Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

1950: “American Painting Today,” The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

“Annual Exhibition: Contemporary American Painting,” Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Monographic catalogues and exhibition brochures