JUNE 7 – SEPTEMBER 8, 2024
OPENING RECEPTION: Friday, June 7, 5 - 7 PM
ARTIST PRESENTATION: 6 PM
The Swope Art Museum is pleased to announce a major exhibition of paintings and drawings by American painter, Stanley Lewis. Over 40 works by the artist will be on display. These works represent a lifetime of intense exploration immersed in the practice of perceptual painting. Lewis is excited to be including works created over the span of his career in one location. Artworks are loan from The William Louis-Dreyfus Foundation, The Center for Figurative Painting, Inc., and from private collections. Lewis’ last retrospective in 2007 was hosted by the Katzen Art Center at American University in Washington, D.C.
In 2022, the artist donated a large painting, Backyard with a Wagon, Table and Chair, 2022, to the Swope Art Museum. The painting had been on display in a solo exhibition at the Betty Cuningham Gallery in New York City. Backyard with a Wagon, Table and Chair, 2022 is currently on display at the Swope and will be included in the retrospective.
Stanley Lewis is a fascinating painter, and I am delighted that the Swope can play host to this exhibition and share his work with our community. Lewis is a revered teacher who will lead a workshop and lecture during his stay here. This show is a must-see!
- Amy MacLennan, curator, Swope Art Museum
Lewis was born in Somerville, New Jersey. He received a BA from Wesleyan University in 1963 and an MFA from Yale University in 1967 as a Danforth Fellow. Throughout his career, Lewis held posts as a teacher and critic at various institutions including Kansas City Art Institute, Smith College, and American University. In 2005, Lewis received a Guggenheim Fellowship and in 2015 he received an Arts and Letters Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His work can be found in numerous public collections including the National Academy Museum, New York, NY; Hollins University Gallery, Roanoke, VA; the Collections of Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Geneva, NY; Indiana University Art Museum, Bloomington, IN; and the Watkins Collection at American University, Washington, D. C. Lewis lives and works in Leeds, MA.
The Swope is grateful for the generosity of loaning institutions like the William Louis-Dreyfus Foundation. Established in 2013, The Foundation is dedicated to the mission of educating the public about the importance of art and increasing public awareness of contemporary, emerging, and self-taught artists. The Foundation’s collection of over 3,500 paintings, sculptures, and drawings personally chosen by William Louis-Dreyfus is housed in museum-quality space in Mount Kisco, NY, and is open to the public by appointment. For more information, please go to https://www.wldfoundation.org/.