ORIGINAL AND VINTAGE ............. VLADAN STIHA...........'TWO FLORALS', GOUACHE ON PAPER, 17" x 11.5".............
These are two 17" x 11.5" Original and Vintage gouaches on paper by the Santa Fe, New Mexico and Russian master painter Vladan Stiha, 1908-1992. The two images are matching florals, the same size in identical frames. They have not been opened. The one floral has Stiha's studio label on the backing board. Both are signed at lower right. Very fine condition.
The Biography Follows:
Vladan Stiha, a painter of Western American landscapes, Indians and
cowboys, began his long, colorful life in Belgrade, Yugoslavia on
October 18, 1908. His life would end three continents and eighty-four
years later on April 25, 1992, at the end of the old Santa Fe Trail in
Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Born into a family of artists, Stiha
learned to draw and paint from his father. He began formal art education
in Belgrade, then had the opportunity to study at The Academy of Arts
in Vienna with Professor Karl Faringer, and later with Professor Carlo
Saverri at the Academy of Art in Rome.
Stiha spent a total of
twenty years in South America after Yugoslavia was invaded during World
War II. Since their first choice of emigration, the United States, had
its quota filled, Stiha and his wife Elena chose Buenos Aires as a first
refuge. An impressionistic style emerged for Stiha during this period,
inspired by his freedom and the colorful backgrounds of the Pampas and
Gauchos, resulting in a vibrant expression of his individuality on his
canvas.
Stiha's spirit was always searching, and after ten years
in Argentina his friends in Brazil enticed him to relocate to Sao
Paulo. The dramatic beaches and primitive marketplaces in Bahia captured
Stiha's heart and he fell in love with the colorful peasants who filled
his canvases with the rich colors of his pastel palette. He was then a
mature artist, confident in his own style and technique, and it was
during this period that he began experimenting with Cubism.
Stiha's
studio and art school in Brazil was located across the street from the
American Embassy. His reputation as a celebrated European and South
American artist attracted the attention of the United States through the
American Consulate, and the Stihas were offered citizenship. Their long
awaited dream of immigrating to the United States came true when Stiha
was 62 years of age and Elena was 66. After a short stay on the West
Coast, they found their way to New Mexico, opening the Stiha Gallery at
the historic La Fonda Hotel in 1971.
During their first year in
the Southwest, the Stihas traveled from reservation to reservation,
painting traditional Indian pageants and their reenactments of the
arrival of settlers in covered wagons. These ceremonies were held in the
spirit of healing the old wounds by "walking in the white man's shoes."
Stiha's
ability as a colorist and portrait painter earned him a place in the
collections of museums like the Smithsonian Institution, Washington
D.C.; Museum of New Mexico, Santa Fe; Navajo Ceremonial Museum; Museum
of the Southwest, Midland, Texas; Pioneer Museum, Colorado Springs,
Colorado; Oklahoma Museum of Art, Red Ridges, Oklahoma; and Fort
Huachuca Historic Museum in Arizona.
"The play of light on the
deserts and the mountains of New Mexico exhilarates me. The shift and
flow of the colors beneath the cloud sweeps mark the changing seasons
with clean definitions and raise my mind to an understanding of the
inevitable order of life." These words of Stiha convey the inspiration
he found in his adopted Southwest. The luminous landscapes, colorful
genre paintings of Indian pageantry, and portraits of Native Americans
are the legacy he has left us, helping to preserve this page of history.
Vladan Stiha died in 1992, and his widow, Elena, died in Santa
Fe in July, 2010. She said that her husband never painted from
photographs; his compositions were always from his mind's eye. He was
always sketching, whether it was on place mats in restaurants or
programs in concerts . . . anytime he was idle his hands would find a
piece of paper to give his ideas life. People familiar with his work are
said to look up on a beautiful day in Santa Fe and say "There's a Stiha
sky!"
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