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The Art
of
May Stevens
(Selected by Moira Roth)
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May Stevens—an extraordinary artist, poet, teacher, and social activist—was born in 1924 in Dorchester, MA. Growing up in a working-class
family, she was fortunate to have teachers who recognized and encouraged her early talent for creating art. She later went on to study in Boston, New York, and
Paris, and her major paintings are now in many prestigious collections and museums.
Throughout her long career, May Stevens has been a committed political activist. Her powerful work reflects her rejection of racism, imperialism, war,
and sexism. Her “Big Daddy” series (see Pax Americana below) and her paintings about the life and death of Rosa Luxemburg (Forming the
Fifth International and Rosa Luxemburg Attends the Second International) are two examples of this. She also has focused on the lives of women, using
her mother, Alice, as the subject of many of her paintings (Go Gentle and Fore River).
Increasingly May Stevens has included words in her paintings (Sea of Words). As she has said, “Words are everywhere. When I use (them) in
my paintings, they describe some of the ideas and emotions that make up that painting. But as they become illegible, they give up their identity to become a
thread, a tone, a sound, a passage that is a vital element in the configuration but not necessarily one that is individually distinguishable.”
Her recent lyrical paintings of water (Three Boats on a Green Green Sea) address not only loss and absence but the vitality of life. In a lecture in
2006 about these paintings, she spoke about “the way the world outside of us, of ‘ourselves,’ makes its own decisions, goes its own
way—ripens in its own time. And the world within us also ripens in its own time, recognizes what it needs, what it wants, when it is ready to do
so—and something new is born. We can be very confused, at a loss, and then suddenly we know, we recognize what we have been waiting for, looking for.
There it is. It’s there, here.”
1. Ordinary/Extraordinary, 1977
Collage and mixed media.
2. Alice in the Garden, 1988-1989
Installation in Stevens’ Brooklyn studio
Courtesy of Mary Ryan Gallery, New York.
3. The Living Room, 1967
Oil on canvas
Courtesy of Mary Ryan Gallery, New York.
4. Pax Americana, 1973
Acrylic on canvas
Courtesy of Mary Ryan Gallery, New York.
5. Artemisia, 1979
Lithograph
Courtesy of Mary Ryan Gallery, New York.
6. The Artist’s Studio (After Courbet), 1974
Acrylic on canvas
Courtesy of Mary Ryan Gallery, New York.
7. Mysteries and Politics, 1978
Acrylic on canvas
Courtesy of Mary Ryan Gallery, New York.
8. Go Gentle, 1983
Acrylic on canvas
Courtesy of Mary Ryan Gallery, New York.
9. Fore Rivers, 1983
Acrylic on canvas
Courtesy of Mary Ryan Gallery, New York.
10. Forming the Fifth International, 1985
Acrylic on canvas
Courtesy of Mary Ryan Gallery, New York.
11. Rosa Luxemburg Attends the Second International, 1987
Acrylic on canvas
12. Sea of Words, 1990-1991
Acrylic on unstretched canvas with audio component
Courtesy of Mary Ryan Gallery, New York.
13. Three Boats on a Green Green Sea, 1999
Lithograph
Courtesy of Mary Ryan Gallery, New York.
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Comments
Paul G. Celentano
14 Nov 2011, 09:31
My father commissioned an abstract oil painting for his computer training
center in Haddonfield, NJ circa 1970. It depicts geometric shapes (data)
being poured into a computer (not shown) and is signed "Stevens."
My mother still has it.
Would that be one of your pieces?
Please contact me.
Thanks,
Paul C.
christine diane campbell o'grady steinbe
21 Aug 2011, 14:15
I was a grad student at Cal State Long Beach when you visited for a
Semester. I can't remember if I mentioned back then what a great impact you
had on my work.
My graduate exibit was titled "Discarded Unions".
I became a better and stronger person too.
Thank you, Chrissy O'Grady Martin www.reptilefamily.com
Thank you
Bonnie Mann
06 Mar 2011, 09:10
I was gifted your book from my son Kenneth Buckland. He enjoyed your
friendship.
Karayanni Maria
20 Feb 2011, 01:47
I admire the work of May Stevens. Her work inspire me so deeply. Specially
the rivers and the lakes which threw the dreemly waves take us to a
beautifull creating journey
Howard Friedland
19 Feb 2011, 12:04
May Stevens was a great influence in my young life. She was my oil painting
teacher at the New York High School of Music and Art in 1962. After a short
career in advertising art I remembered the joy that I had in her oil class
and switched to fine art and oil painting. It warmed my heart to see this
post about her on line. Howard Friedland at www.howardfriedland.com
Lydia michelle
11 Oct 2010, 21:36
Dear May Stevens,
Your work is poetry. I love your phrase "sea of words".
When words are incorporated in your work they loose their identity and
become a thread, a tone, a sound,
You said that and I wrote it down to tell my future students.
ROBERT LANGERSARINBOBL
09 May 2010, 05:52
We first became aware of May Stevens when we saw her work in a friends
apartment; the year was 1958.. We made an appointment to visit her home in
Yonkers, were mystically attracted to her collages, paid for 2 of them on
an installment basis, as we could only afford fifty dollars per month, and
have enjoyed their company ever since.
Faith Holsaert
20 Oct 2009, 16:42
May Stevens was one of my teachers at NYC's High School of Music and Art. I
found her huge canvases larger than life in subject and spirit as well as
physicality. I followed her series in the 70s and then heard nothing of her
until now. How great to see this work again.
Eva Kollisch
19 Oct 2009, 19:47
Dear May,
How thrilling to see your beautiful work on my computer.
I still have a glow in my heart when I remember the large (blue?) canvas in
Jane Cooper's living room. And the fascination with Rosa Luxemburg that you
shared. As I write these words, I feel myself very much in touch with both
of you-- poet and painter -- two wonderful artists.
Fondly,
Eva Kollisch
Esther Broner
30 Sep 2009, 11:30
May Stevens is a marvelous artist and embellishes Persimmon Tree with
feeling, politics, poetic depictions. She's been in my visual memory since
the Seventies and how wonderful to see her work still strong! Esther M.
Broner
Leah Shelleda
19 Sep 2009, 14:55
What a treat to see May Stevens work! I used a slide of Pax Americana from
J.J. Wilson collection in a Women's Studies
course, and was not able to find more of
her work at the time. Sensitivity and power joined.
Ruth Fields
17 Sep 2009, 09:17
May, your work is beautiful,powerful and wonderful to see again even in
reproduction. We look forward to an exhibit soon.
Mary Stebbins Taitt
16 Sep 2009, 19:09
Powerful and striking. Beyond evocative. WOW!
susanKleckner
16 Sep 2009, 16:37
It's wonderful to see May Stevens' work again, what a glorious talent!
Such visual and conceptual feasts. If anyone knows when and where we can
see live exhibitions of her work, please post.
Gene K. Garrison
16 Sep 2009, 07:35
Powerful is the word to describe May Stevens' work. Sensitive is a good one
too. I admire it tremendously.
Shirley Gaines
15 Sep 2009, 19:51
May Stevens. A powerful artist. I am fascinated and moved by her work.
She's a wonderfully sensitive painter.
ruth housman
15 Sep 2009, 18:44
These pictures lend themselves to a lot of study. In exhibit they will be
powerful. I like the use of language in the titling of these art works
because language works for the art, as in "sea of words". Of course sea and
see are also aurally synonymous as in the words in motion/in mocean. I do
it with words and I love it when others do it, too. Living room of course
has a double meaning and this brings new life to the painting and thought.
Barbara Hirsch
15 Sep 2009, 18:07
Thanks for sharing May Stevens work with us. Quite compelling conceptually
and visually. I too would love to see an exhibit of her work.
Patricia Stegman
15 Sep 2009, 17:46
Powerful stuff! I'd like to see all these paintings in the flesh...has she
had an exhibition recently; or is she goin to haveone?
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