The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (424 page)
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Authors: Ian Chilvers
Sage , Kay
(1898–1963).
American
Surrealist
painter, mainly self-taught as an artist. In 1900–14 and 1919–37 she lived in Italy (she was married to an Italian prince, 1925–35), and Giorgio de
Chirico
was an early influence on her work. In 1937 she moved to Paris, where she met
Tanguy
in 1939. He followed her to the USA that year and they were married in 1940. From the time of her return to America architectural motifs became prominent in her work-strange steel structures depicted in sharp detail against vistas of unreal space—and her pictures also included draperies from which faces and figures sometimes mistily emerged (
Tomorrow is Never
, Metropolitan Museum, New York, 1955). Sage also made mixed-media constructions. Tanguy's sudden death in 1955 cast a shadow over her last years and she committed suicide.
American
Surrealist
painter, mainly self-taught as an artist. In 1900–14 and 1919–37 she lived in Italy (she was married to an Italian prince, 1925–35), and Giorgio de
Chirico
was an early influence on her work. In 1937 she moved to Paris, where she met
Tanguy
in 1939. He followed her to the USA that year and they were married in 1940. From the time of her return to America architectural motifs became prominent in her work-strange steel structures depicted in sharp detail against vistas of unreal space—and her pictures also included draperies from which faces and figures sometimes mistily emerged (
Tomorrow is Never
, Metropolitan Museum, New York, 1955). Sage also made mixed-media constructions. Tanguy's sudden death in 1955 cast a shadow over her last years and she committed suicide.
Saint-Gaudens , Augustus
(1848–1907).
The leading American sculptor of his period. Born in Dublin of a French father and an Irish mother, Saint-Gaudens was brought to America in infancy. He began his career as a
cameo
-cutter in New York, then studied for three years in Paris (1867–70) and three in Rome (1870–3), returning to America in 1874. His first important commission was the
Admiral Farragut Monument
(1878–81) in Madison Square Park, New York, and following its successful reception he quickly achieved a leading reputation among American sculptors and retained this throughout his life. Saint-Gaudens was an energetic artist and he produced a large amount of work in spite of the high standards of craftsmanship he set himself. His preferred material was bronze and he excelled particularly at memorials. Although his style is generally warmly naturalistic, his most celebrated work, the Adams Memorial (1891) in Rock Creek Cemetery, Washington, is a powerful allegorical figure. It is a monument to a wife of a friend of Saint-Gaudens who had committed suicide, and the mysterious female figure, swathed in magnificent voluminous draperies, has been interpreted as ‘Grief’, although the sculptor himself saw the elegiac work as embodying ‘the Peace of God’. Saint-Gaudens was a highly important figure in the development of American sculpture; he turned the tide against
Neo-classicism
and made Paris, rather than Rome, the artistic mecca of his countrymen.
The leading American sculptor of his period. Born in Dublin of a French father and an Irish mother, Saint-Gaudens was brought to America in infancy. He began his career as a
cameo
-cutter in New York, then studied for three years in Paris (1867–70) and three in Rome (1870–3), returning to America in 1874. His first important commission was the
Admiral Farragut Monument
(1878–81) in Madison Square Park, New York, and following its successful reception he quickly achieved a leading reputation among American sculptors and retained this throughout his life. Saint-Gaudens was an energetic artist and he produced a large amount of work in spite of the high standards of craftsmanship he set himself. His preferred material was bronze and he excelled particularly at memorials. Although his style is generally warmly naturalistic, his most celebrated work, the Adams Memorial (1891) in Rock Creek Cemetery, Washington, is a powerful allegorical figure. It is a monument to a wife of a friend of Saint-Gaudens who had committed suicide, and the mysterious female figure, swathed in magnificent voluminous draperies, has been interpreted as ‘Grief’, although the sculptor himself saw the elegiac work as embodying ‘the Peace of God’. Saint-Gaudens was a highly important figure in the development of American sculpture; he turned the tide against
Neo-classicism
and made Paris, rather than Rome, the artistic mecca of his countrymen.
St Ives School
.
.
A loosely structured group of artists, flourishing particularly from the late 1940s to the early 1960s, who concentrated their activities in the Cornish fishing village of St Ives. Like
Newlyn
, St Ives had been popular with artists long before this, but it did not become of more than local importance in painting and sculpture until Barbara
Hepworth
and Ben
Nicholson
moved there in 1939, two weeks before the outbreak of the Second World War. They were anxious that their children should be safely outside London, and their friend Adrian
Stokes
, who lived at Corbis Bay (virtually a suburb of St Ives), invited the family to stay with him. Hepworth lived in St Ives for the rest of her life (her studio is now a museum of her work) and Nicholson (who had discovered Alfred
Wallis
on a day-trip to St Ives in 1928) lived there until 1958. They formed the nucleus of a group of avant-garde artists who made the town an internationally recognized centre of abstract art, and it is to these artists that the term ‘St Ives School’ is usually applied, even though many of them had little in common stylistically, apart from an interest in portraying the local landscape in abstract terms. The one with the greatest international prestige was Naum
Gabo
, who lived in St Ives from 1939 to 1946. After the war a number of abstract painters settled in or near the town or made regular visits. The residents included Terry
Frost
and Patrick
Heron
; the visitors included Roger
Hilton
(who eventually settled in St Ives in 1965), Adrian
Heath
, and Victor
Pasmore
. Peter Lanyon (1918–64) was the only notable abstract artist to be born in St Ives. The heyday of the St Ives School was over by the mid-1960s, but the town continued to be an artistic centre. In 1993 the Tate Gallery opened a branch museum there (The Tate Gallery St Ives), housing changing displays of the work of 20th-cent. artists associated with the town. The building includes a stained-glass window commissioned from Patrick Heron .
Newlyn
, St Ives had been popular with artists long before this, but it did not become of more than local importance in painting and sculpture until Barbara
Hepworth
and Ben
Nicholson
moved there in 1939, two weeks before the outbreak of the Second World War. They were anxious that their children should be safely outside London, and their friend Adrian
Stokes
, who lived at Corbis Bay (virtually a suburb of St Ives), invited the family to stay with him. Hepworth lived in St Ives for the rest of her life (her studio is now a museum of her work) and Nicholson (who had discovered Alfred
Wallis
on a day-trip to St Ives in 1928) lived there until 1958. They formed the nucleus of a group of avant-garde artists who made the town an internationally recognized centre of abstract art, and it is to these artists that the term ‘St Ives School’ is usually applied, even though many of them had little in common stylistically, apart from an interest in portraying the local landscape in abstract terms. The one with the greatest international prestige was Naum
Gabo
, who lived in St Ives from 1939 to 1946. After the war a number of abstract painters settled in or near the town or made regular visits. The residents included Terry
Frost
and Patrick
Heron
; the visitors included Roger
Hilton
(who eventually settled in St Ives in 1965), Adrian
Heath
, and Victor
Pasmore
. Peter Lanyon (1918–64) was the only notable abstract artist to be born in St Ives. The heyday of the St Ives School was over by the mid-1960s, but the town continued to be an artistic centre. In 1993 the Tate Gallery opened a branch museum there (The Tate Gallery St Ives), housing changing displays of the work of 20th-cent. artists associated with the town. The building includes a stained-glass window commissioned from Patrick Heron .
St Martin's Lane Academy
.
.
A name of two successive organizations in St Martin's Lane, London, that were important training grounds for English artists in the half-century before the
Royal Academy
was established in 1768. They were founded in 1720 and 1735 respectively and each was a drawing and painting class rather than a professional institution. The first St Martin's Lane Academy grew out of another academy (London's first) established in 1711 in Great Queen Street, of which
Kneller
was the head.
Thornhill
replaced Kneller in 1716, and in 1720, when Thornhill himself was deposed, the academy moved to St Martin's Lane. It soon became defunct, but
Hogarth
reconstituted it in 1735. He described the room in which it met as ‘big enough for a naked figure to be drawn after by thirty or forty people’.
Royal Academy
was established in 1768. They were founded in 1720 and 1735 respectively and each was a drawing and painting class rather than a professional institution. The first St Martin's Lane Academy grew out of another academy (London's first) established in 1711 in Great Queen Street, of which
Kneller
was the head.
Thornhill
replaced Kneller in 1716, and in 1720, when Thornhill himself was deposed, the academy moved to St Martin's Lane. It soon became defunct, but
Hogarth
reconstituted it in 1735. He described the room in which it met as ‘big enough for a naked figure to be drawn after by thirty or forty people’.
Saint Phalle , Niki de
(1930– ).
French sculptor, one of the great entertainers of modern art. She had no formal artistic training. In 1952 she started painting and in 1956 she began making
reliefs
and
assemblages
. She first made a public name in 1960 with ‘rifle-shot’ paintings that incorporated containers of paint intended to be burst and spattered when shot with a pistol. After she separated from her husband in 1960 she lived with Jean
Tinguely
, with whom she collaborated on numerous projects, notably the enormous sculpture
Hon
(Swedish for ‘she’) erected at the Moderna Museet, Stockholm, in 1963. It was in the form of a reclining woman (more than 25 m. long) whose interior was a giant
‘environment’
reminiscent of a fun-fair: visitors entered through the vagina. The attractions inside included a milk bar in the breasts and a cinema showing Greta Garbo movies. Externally the figure was gaudily painted in a manner similar to that of her series of
Nanas
—grotesque fat ladies. Her other works have included
happenings
and films, and since 1979, she has worked on a huge sculpture garden at Garavicchio in Italy. Her recent projects include a touching book on AIDS addressed to her son (
AIDS: You Can't Catch it Holding Hands
, 1987) and a huge figure of the Loch Ness Monster, made for an exhibition of her work in Glasgow in 1992.
French sculptor, one of the great entertainers of modern art. She had no formal artistic training. In 1952 she started painting and in 1956 she began making
reliefs
and
assemblages
. She first made a public name in 1960 with ‘rifle-shot’ paintings that incorporated containers of paint intended to be burst and spattered when shot with a pistol. After she separated from her husband in 1960 she lived with Jean
Tinguely
, with whom she collaborated on numerous projects, notably the enormous sculpture
Hon
(Swedish for ‘she’) erected at the Moderna Museet, Stockholm, in 1963. It was in the form of a reclining woman (more than 25 m. long) whose interior was a giant
‘environment’
reminiscent of a fun-fair: visitors entered through the vagina. The attractions inside included a milk bar in the breasts and a cinema showing Greta Garbo movies. Externally the figure was gaudily painted in a manner similar to that of her series of
Nanas
—grotesque fat ladies. Her other works have included
happenings
and films, and since 1979, she has worked on a huge sculpture garden at Garavicchio in Italy. Her recent projects include a touching book on AIDS addressed to her son (
AIDS: You Can't Catch it Holding Hands
, 1987) and a huge figure of the Loch Ness Monster, made for an exhibition of her work in Glasgow in 1992.
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