Interactive Timeline of Ary's Artwork

Representational

Palestine Watercolors

Morocco Drawings

Early Abstracts

New York Folio

Drawings

Prints

Early Mexican

Gouaches

Houston-
Cuernavaca

Leyendas

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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No image
Abstraction
in Squares

c.1961-1966,
gouache on paper,
[Private Collection]
Ancient Recording
Ancient Recording
c.1961-1966,
gouache on paper,
[Foundation Collection]
Animal Motif from Temple
Animal Motif
from Temple

c.1961-1966,
gouache on paper,
[Foundation Collection]
Arabesque #1
Arabesque #1
c.1961-1966,
gouache on paper,
[Foundation Collection]
Arabesque #2
Arabesque #2
c.1961-1966,
gouache on paper,
[Foundation Collection]
Arabesque #3
Arabesque #3
c.1961-1966,
gouache on paper,
[Foundation Collection]
Archaic Design
Archaic Design
c.1961-1966,
gouache on paper,
[Foundation Collection]
Archaic Illustration to Bible
Archaic Illustration
to Bible

c.1961-1966,
gouache on paper,
[Foundation Collection]
Aria (Opera)
Aria (Opera)
1966,
gouache on paper,
19 1/2 x 13 in.,
[Private Collection]
No image
Autumnal Mood
c.1961-1966,
gouache on paper,
[Private Collection]
Aztec Decoration in Blue and Brown
Aztec Decoration
in Blue and Brown

c.1961-1966,
gouache on paper,
[Foundation Collection]
Bird Motif, Weaving from Temple
Bird Motif, Weaving
from Temple

c.1961-1966,
gouache on paper,
[Foundation Collection]
Birth of the Snake God
Birth of the
Snake God

c.1961-1966,
gouache on paper,
18 x 13 1/2 in.,
[Private Collection]
Black Magic
Black Magic
1964,
gouache on paper,
19 x 13 1/2 in.,
[Museum Collection]
Black Magic #3
Black Magic #3
c.1961-1966,
gouache on paper,
[Foundation Collection]
Caprice
Caprice
1961,
gouache on paper,
17 1/2 x 13 1/2 in.,
[Museum Collection]
Carousel
Carousel
c.1961-1966,
gouache on paper,
[Foundation Collection]
Cave Design
Cave Design
c.1961-1966,
gouache on paper,
[Foundation Collection]
No image
Colorful Abstraction #2
c.1961-1966,
gouache on paper,
[Private Collection]
Composition on Snake Theme
Composition on
Snake Theme

c.1961-1966,
gouache on paper,
[Foundation Collection]
Coptic
Coptic
1966,
gouache on paper,
13 x 19 1/2 in.,
[Private Collection]
Cosmos
Cosmos
c.1961-1966,
gouache on paper,
[Foundation Collection]
Decoration from a Temple
Decoration
from a Temple

c.1961-1966,
gouache on paper,
[Foundation Collection]
Decoration from the Palace
Decoration from
the Palace

c.1961-1966,
gouache on paper,
[Foundation Collection]
Decoration from the Palace of the Young Prince
Decoration from
the Palace
of the Young Prince

c.1961-1966,
gouache on paper,
[Foundation Collection]
Decoration from the Palace, Man and Woman
Decoration from
the Palace,
Man and Woman

c.1961-1966,
gouache on paper,
[Foundation Collection]
Decorative Design in Persian Spirit
Decorative Design
in Persian Spirit

c.1961-1966,
gouache on paper,
[Foundation Collection]
Decorative Panel in Chinese Spirit
Decorative Panel
in Chinese Spirit

c.1961-1966,
gouache on paper,
[Foundation Collection]
Design for a Mural
Design for a Mural
c.1961-1966,
gouache on paper,
[Foundation Collection]
Untitled, Catalog #123
Untitled
c.1961-1966,
gouache on paper,
[Foundation Collection]

 

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Art Review

New York Times

"From the Summer of ’50, Luminous Drawings"
By Benjamin Genocchio
August, 19, 2007

Sayville #23

Current Exhibition

Coming Up Soon...

Ary Stillman: From Impressionism to Abstract Expressionism

From Impressionism to Abstract Expressionism Edited by James Wechsler Foreword by Donald Kuspit

Upcoming Exhibition

Ary Stillman
(1891-1967):
Spirits of the Underworld

Spirits of Underworld

Van Deren Coke Gallery
at the University of
New Mexico Art Museum, Albuquerque

October 7-December 2, 2008

Foundation's Catalog 2007

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