Stanley Lewis (sculptor)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Stanley Lewis was a Jewish Canadian sculptor, photographer and an internationally renowned art teacher born on March 28, 1930, in Montreal. His works are held in many public collections such as the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec,[1] and the National Gallery of Canada, as well as in numerous private collections.[2] Since the 1950, Lewis' sculptures and lithographic works have been displayed in the galleries and museums around the world in cities such as Paris, Florence, New York City, and Mexico City.
Lewis died on August 14, 2006, at the Montreal Jewish General Hospital due to a heart failure.
He is survived by his sister, Sheila Lewis Kanter, and his daughter, Alyssa (Reid) Savage.
Stanley Lewis received his formal training through the art school at the Montreal museum of fine arts by artists such as Arthur Lismer, a member of the Group of Seven, and Jacques de Tonnancour.[3] Graduating first in his class, he continued in his studies at the l'Instituto Allende de San Miguel, in Mexico, at the workshop of the Master Florentine marble sculptor V. Gambacciani, and at the Ein Hod Artist's Colony in Israel.[4] During his travels in Florence, Lewis met Irving Stone who was in turn significantly influenced by Lewis' work, stating "Lewis taught me how to make a chisel fly across marble, and why a sculptor, to be great, has to be a poet as well."[5] In fact, Stone's interest in Lewis' sculpting and research work on the sculptor Michelangelo led to their collaboration on the novel The Agony and the Ecstasy, one of Stone's most well known works.[6]
Lewis was a pioneer in colour lithography in Canada, using different lithographic stones for each transparent ink color to give a gradual transitional effect in the print. He was also interested in art of the Italian Renaissance and Inuit sculpture, spending several winters in the Canadian arctic to perfect his artistic skills.[7]
