Description:

Stewart Klonis
Connecticut, (1901 - 1989)
Three scenic New England landscapes
watercolor landscapes on paper
all signed one dated 1931.

Biography from Stewart Galleries, Inc.

Stewart Klonis, executive director of the Art Students League for 34 years until his retirement in 1980, died in his sleep on Saturday. He was 86 years old, and lived at the Palm Beach Home for Adults in the Sheepshead Bay section of Brooklyn.

Mr. Klonis was born on Dec. 24, 1902, in Naugatuck, Conn., and went to New York City in 1921. He worked for the Guggenheim Brothers brokerage house, and in 1927 began to study painting at night at the league. He joined its 12-member board in 1934. The league, which was founded by art students in 1875, was in desperate straits, and its disbandment seemed inevitable.

As the only board member with a background in finance, Mr. Klonis became treasurer; by dint of stringent economies, he managed to balance the books. The league was eventually able to obtain control of the American Fine Arts Society, which owns the building occupied by the league at 215 West 57th Street. An Arena for Artists

In 1932, with the artist Vernon Porter, a friend, Mr. Klonis helped to found the Washington Square Outdoor Art Exhibition. In the show's early years, exhibitors included many well-known artists-among them Reginald Marsh and Yasuo Kuniyoshi - as well as artists who were then unknown, including Jackson Pollock. A league student until 1933, Mr. Klonis himself was a frequent exhibitor in the show.

He was elected president of the league in 1937, and in 1946 was named executive director, his first salaried post there. During his tenure, he succeeded in persuading the board to widen the range of teaching, including Abstractionists to supplement the school's emphasis on figurative painting.

Mr. Klonis is survived by a daughter, Laura Greisman of Brooklyn, and two sisters, Regina Bourie of Safety Harbor, Fla., and Wanda Beccia of Farmington, Conn.

Source: Article written by Grace Glueck.

  • Dimensions: 10 1/4"H x 14 1/4"W (one)
  • Medium: watercolor landscapes on paper

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