Stella Snead

Stella Snead
Born (1910-04-02)April 2, 1910
London, England
Died March 18, 2006(2006-03-18) (aged 95)
New York City
Nationality English
Movement Surrealism

Stella Snead (April 2, 1910-March 18, 2006)[1] was a surrealist painter, photographer, and collage artist born in London, England,[1] who moved to the United States in 1939 to flee World War II.[1]

Snead’s paintings featured landscapes and whimsical, surreal creatures.[2] One of her better known paintings is Ecstatic Cow (1943).[3] In 1949, her work was shown at the Carnegie International Exhibition in Pittsburgh.[4] Though painting had been her artistic focus for much of her life, Snead stopped painting in the 1950s due to the onset of depression, which she would struggle with for the rest of her life.[2]

Snead later took up photography, and is noted for the eight photography books she published, including Shiva's Pigeons: An Experience of India and Animals in Four Worlds: Sculptures from India. These were based on various extended trips to India in the 1960s, where she shot imagery of Hindu sculpture, Indian nature, and street life in India’s urban centers.[2][5]

More recently, in 2005, Snead's paintings from the 1940s were featured in a survey exhibition of American surrealists, Surrealism USA, at the National Academy Museum in New York.[6]

Early life

Snead was born in London, England on April 2, 1910 to Ethel May Snead and Clarence Fredrick Heron Snead.[7] In her autobiography, Snead claims that her parents' relationship was troubled due to what she deemed “dark moods” exhibited by her father.[8] Such moods were a contributing factor in Stella and Ethel May’s exodus from Clarence Fredrick Heron Snead’s home in 1915.[8]

She attended a variety of village schools in England as a child, before attending a progressive theosophical school, St. Christopher’s, Letchworth. She then took a secretarial course, but never truly employed its benefits, as depressive tendencies kept her from holding a daily work schedule.

Painting career

Out of work due to mental illness, Snead’s mother supported her until she became transfixed by the notion of painting in her early twenties.[7] After three years of independent study, Snead became a student at the Ozenfant Academy of Fine Art in London, England. She studied there under the renowned French abstract artist Amédée Ozenfant and alongside fellow student and friend Leonora Carrington.[2][9]

Starting with garden scenes, Snead progressed toward a surrealist style, and frequently featured nocturnal scenes punctuated by semi-human and mystical creatures.[2]

The declaration of World War II in Europe spurred Snead’s move from London, England to the United States.[2] In 1939, Snead arrived in New York, but remained only briefly, preferring to travel around the country, often hitching a ride on mail trucks.[7][10] She lived for several years in Taos, New Mexico.[11] After her return to London, Snead endured the break-up of a romantic relationship, which triggered the depressive spell that would end her work as a painter until the late 1980s, when she would endeavor to recreate some of her lost works.[2]

She had her last solo exhibition of paintings in 1950 at The London Gallery in England until 1999's exhibition "Rediscovery" The Paintings of Stella Snead" at CFM Gallery in New York.The catalog for this show had articles by Neil Zukerman, Whitney Chadwick, Saloman Grimberg, Stephen Robeson-Miller and Pavel Zoubok as well as text by Snead.

Photography career

During Snead’s extensive hiatus from painting, she utilized photography as a creative outlet, photographing the world around her during her travels after World War II.[7]

A large portion of Snead’s photography was inspired by her multiple trips to the Indian Subcontinent in the 1960s.[2] Here, her eye for surrealism would manifest in interpretations of Indian monuments and landscapes.[2] Her photography would be published in collections such as Ruins in Jungles (1962), Animals in Four Worlds: Sculptures from India, and Shiva’s Pigeons: an Experience of India.[2] Later, Snead would use some of these photos to create collages, and would publish a collection entitled Can Drowning Be Fun? A Nonsense Book.[2]

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Stella Snead at Weinstein Gallery". www.weinstein.com. Retrieved 2017-03-04.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Hawtree, Christopher (2006-04-27). "Stella Snead". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2017-03-04.
  3. ↑ Hawtree, Christopher (2006-04-27). "Stella Snead". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2017-07-08.
  4. ↑ Johnson, Ken (2006-04-01). "Stella Snead, 96, Painter and Photographer, Is Dead". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2017-07-08.
  5. ↑ Johnson, Ken (2006-04-01). "Stella Snead, 96, Painter and Photographer, Is Dead". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2017-07-08.
  6. ↑ Johnson, Ken (2006-04-01). "Stella Snead, 96, Painter and Photographer, Is Dead". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2017-07-08.
  7. 1 2 3 4 Snead, Stella. "Stella Snead: Chronology of a painter".
  8. 1 2 Snead, Stella. "Early Childhood and Before". Archipelago.
  9. ↑ Johnson, Ken (2006-04-01). "Stella Snead, 96, Painter and Photographer, Is Dead". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2017-07-08.
  10. ↑ Hawtree, Christopher (2006-04-27). "Stella Snead". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2017-07-08.
  11. ↑ Hawtree, Christopher (2006-04-27). "Stella Snead". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2017-07-08.
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