Stanley Boxer
(1926–)
(–2000)
Stanley Boxer
1926–2000
Stanley Boxer (1926–2000) was an American artist known for his abstract works that utilized layers of paint to create thick, textural shapes. He was also an accomplished sculptor and printmaker.
Boxer was born in the Williamsburg neighbourhood of Brooklyn in New York. He began his formal education after World War II when he left the Navy and studied at the Art Students League of New York. During his studies, Boxer would work tirelessly to perfect his craft, spending seven days a week in his studio.
Boxer has his first solo exhibition in New York in 1953. Throughout the 1970s he would continue to show frequently with Tibor de Nagy Gallery in New York City, before developing a partnership with famed art dealer André Emmerich, which lasted until 1993.
Boxer was recognized by art critic Clement Greenberg, who categorized him as a colour field painter, a designation that Boxer rejected. Boxer remained loyal to material experimentation and was notable for his abstract compositions and their use of texture and colour.
Boxer understood his practice as “visionless,” meaning he rejected the notion that his preceding art could dictate the direction of his future works. His practice shifted from figurative imagery in the 1940s and early 1950s, towards deeper abstraction in the 1960s and 1970s. The 1980s are known as the period which showcases Boxer’s full examination of paint itself through thick, textural layering.
In 1993, the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts organized a career retrospective of Boxer’s work. His work is in the permanent collection of many museums, including the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, the Boston Museum of Fine Art, the Tate Gallery, and the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington.
In 1975, Boxer was a recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship and a National Endowment for the Arts Visual Artists Fellowship Grant in 1989. In 1993 Boxer was elected by his peers as a full member of the National Academy of Design, an honorary association of artists.