Thomas Boutis (1922 – 2018) was an American artist, known as an abstract expressionist with a love of color.[1][2][3] He primarily worked in painting, drawing, collage, watercolor, and printmaking.

Tom Boutis
Born
Thomas Boutis

1922
DiedOctober 29, 2018
U.S.
Alma materCooper Union
MovementAbstract expressionist

Biography edit

Tom Boutis was born in 1922 in New York City to parents from Kastoria, Greece.[4][5] He worked as a Federal Art Project artist.[where?][when?] Boutis was drafted by the United States Army in 1943.[4] Boutis attended Cooper Union and graduated in 1948.[4][6] He was a friend of Vincent DaCosta Smith and in the early 1950s Boutis influenced Smith's early career as an artist.[7] His first solo art show was in January 1955 at Zabriskie Gallery in New York City.[4][8]

In the 1950s, with artists from the E 10th Street co-op movement, he established the Area Gallery in New York City which was in operation from 1958 until 1965.[5] The original members of Area Gallery were Tom Boutis, alongside artists John Ireland Collins, Charles Steven DuBack, Joe Fiore, Bernard Langlais, Ed Moses, Daphne Mumford, and Paul Yakovenko.[5] Alongside many of the artist from Area Gallery, Boutis was a founding member of the artist-run Landmark Gallery at 469 Broome Street in SoHo,[9] in operation from 1972 until 1982.

Boutis was a National Academician and member of the National Academy of Design, joining in 1995.[10][11]

Boutis died on October 29, 2018, at the age of 96.[4]

His work is included in many public museum collections, including Art Institute of Chicago,[12] the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum archives,[13] the Smithsonian Archives of American Art,[14] among others.

References edit

  1. ^ Ashton, Dore (1959-04-16). "Art: Looking Downtown; Shows by Morton Lucks, Tom Boutis and Pat Passlof Among Those on Review". The New York Times. Retrieved 2020-05-13.
  2. ^ Raynor, Vivien (1978-05-12). "Art: Al Held Puts Op In a Hall of Mirrors". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-05-13.
  3. ^ "Paintings and Monoprints on Display at Pine Library". Newspapers.com. Shopper News from Paramus, New Jersey. April 24, 1985. p. 43. Retrieved 2020-05-14.
  4. ^ a b c d e "Tom Boutis". Legacy.com. The New York Times. 2018-12-16. Retrieved 2020-05-13.
  5. ^ a b c "A Finding Aid to the Area Gallery Records, 1958-1977, bulk 1959-1964, in the Archives of American Art". Smithsonian Online Virtual Archives, Archives of American Art. Retrieved 2020-05-13.
  6. ^ Lynch, Mary (2018). "2018 In Memoriam". Cooper Union Alumni. Retrieved 2020-05-13.
  7. ^ Patton, Sharon (1990). Vincent D. Smith: Riding on a Blue Note:Monoprints and Works on Paper on Jazz Themes (exhibition catalogue). New York City, NY: Louis Abrons Arts Center, Henry Street Settlement. pp. 1970–1972.
  8. ^ Zabriskie: Fifty Years. New York City, NY: Ruder Finn Press. 2004. p. 82. ISBN 9781932646153.
  9. ^ Shkuda, Aaron (2016). The Lofts of SoHo: Gentrification, Art, and Industry in New York, 1950–1980. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. p. 122. ISBN 9780226334189.
  10. ^ Price, Marshall N. (2007). The Abstract Impulse: Fifty Years of Abstraction at the National Academy, 1956-2006. Hudson Hills. pp. 22–23. ISBN 9781887149174.
  11. ^ "National Academicians". National Academy of Design. Retrieved 2020-05-13.
  12. ^ "Tom Boutis". The Art Institute of Chicago. Retrieved 2020-05-13.
  13. ^ "Artist files, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum Archives". Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Library Department. 2016-12-13. Retrieved 2020-05-13.
  14. ^ "Tom Boutis papers, 1951-1979". Archives of American Art, Smithsonian. Retrieved 2020-05-13.

Further reading edit

  • Yale, Epstein (1980). "Tom Boutis". Arts Magazine. Vol. 54. pp. 197–198.

External links edit