Stella Snead
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Stella Snead | |
|---|---|
| Born | April 2, 1910 London, England |
| Died | March 18, 2006 (aged 95) New York City, U.S. |
| Known for | Painting, photography |
| Movement | Surrealism |
Stella Snead (April 2, 1910 – March 18, 2006) was a surrealist painter, photographer, and collage artist born in London, England. She immigrated to the United States in 1939 to escape World War II.[1]
In 1936, Snead enrolled at the Ozenfant Academy of Fine Arts in London, founded by Amédée Ozenfant.[2] She moved to the United States in 1939, where she became part of a circle of surrealist artists who had also emigrated. In 1940, she traveled by bus to Los Angeles, where she was inspired by the landscapes and indigenous cultures of the American West and Southwest.[2] In 1946, Snead relocated to Taos, New Mexico, where she lived in an adobe structure and observed Native American ceremonies and dances.[2]
Snead's paintings reflect her fascination with natural phenomena such as tornadoes, geysers, and volcanoes, often depicting animals and humans engaged in ritualistic movements within anthropomorphic landscapes.[2] One of her notable works is Ecstatic Cow (1943).[3] She held a solo exhibition in 1941 at Gallery 10 in New York and exhibited at Bonestell Gallery (1945), the Arcade Gallery in London (1945), and E. L. T. Mesens's London Gallery (1950).[2] In 1949, her work was included in the Carnegie International Exhibition in Pittsburgh.[4]
Recognition for Snead's work resurfaced in 2005 when her paintings were included in Surrealism USA, a major exhibition at the National Academy Museum in New York, with subsequent showings at the Wadsworth Atheneum, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and other galleries.[5]
In the 1950s, Snead transitioned to photography, moving to India, where she documented Hindu sculptures, landscapes, and street life. She published eight books of photography, including Shiva's Pigeons: An Experience of India (1972), Beach Patterns: The World of Sea and Sand (1975), and Animals in Four Worlds: Sculptures from India (1989).[3][4]
Snead spent her later years traveling between New York City, London, Taos, and India. In 1971, she settled on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, where she lived until her death on March 18, 2006, at the Jewish Home and Hospital in Manhattan. According to her art dealer Pavel Zoubok, she died of natural causes and had no immediate survivors.[4]
Snead was born in London, England, on April 2, 1910, to Ethel May Snead and Clarence Frederick Heron Snead.[6] In her autobiography, Snead described her parents' troubled relationship, attributing much of the tension to what she referred to as her father’s “dark moods.”[7] These moods contributed to the separation of Stella and her mother from the family home in 1915.[7]
Her parents decided that she would be raised as a lifelong vegetarian and remain unvaccinated to avoid "contaminating" her blood.[7] As a child, her father resented the attention and affection her mother gave her, leading to increasing hostility toward Ethel May.[7] At birth, her father named her Magdalene Snead, but her mother preferred Stella. Eventually, she adopted her mother’s choice as her first name, keeping Magdalene as her middle name.[7]
Snead attended several small village schools in England before enrolling at St. Christopher School in Letchworth, a progressive theosophical institution. She later took a secretarial course but struggled to maintain a steady job due to depressive tendencies that made it difficult to adhere to a daily work schedule.[7]
In 1928, Snead moved from Leicester to Sutton, Surrey.[7] In 1936, she accompanied her only artist friend to the Spanish island of Tenerife, where they painted flowers in a private garden.[7] That summer, she continued painting in her bedroom, much to her mother’s concern, as she isolated herself and neglected physical exercise and social interactions.[7]
