Divide

"Like the others among the small group of painters who evolved in New York City during the 1940s. Stamos strives to communicate metempirical content through the painterly medium. He abhors sheer decoration, and he denies the diaristic as an end. His paintings always begin from the most personal approach, and, through the painting process, aim at transforming his innermost emotions into an expression of the timeless qualities which unite human experience. It is this goal which unites Stamos with his generation, and it is the individualist starting point that they share which defines Stamos's differences from them. His self-identification with the pictures breathes from within the works themselves, and Stamos's unique character infuses them with a nature and touch that is his alone." B. Cavaliere, exh. cat., Theodoros Stamos, New York, April 1981, n.p.


Portrait of 'The Irascibles,' New York, New York, November 24, 1950. Pictured are William Baziotes, James C. Brooks, Jimmy Ernst, Adolph Gottlieb, Hedda Sterne, Clyfford Still, Willem de Kooning, Bradley Walker Tomlin, Barnett Newman, Jackson Pollock, Theodoros Stamos, Richard Pousette-Dart, Robert Motherwell, Ad Reinhardt, and Mark Rothko. Photo by Nina Leen/Time Life Pictures/Getty Images