Tom Boutis

Tom Boutis
Born
Thomas Boutis

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

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.

Biography

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

  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

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