Stephen Hannock
Encyclopedia
Stephen Hannock is an American painter known for his atmospheric landscapes––compositions of flooded rivers, nocturnes and large vistas which often incorporate text inscriptions that relate to family, friends or events of daily life. The artist creates a unique luminosity
using a signature technique that involves building up layers of paint on the canvas, sandpaper-polishing it, applying new layers of paint and polishing again. Many critics have compared Hannock's paintings to such forebears as Thomas Cole
, Frederic Edwin Church
, J.M.W. Turner, Albert Pinkham Ryder
, and Louis Remy Mignot, among other nineteenth-century masters. Art Historian Jason Rosenfeld, in his 2002 essay Imaginary Realism, Meaningful Contradictions, describes Hannock's work as "both distinctively modern as well as reflective of landscape traditions." And Rosenfeld goes on to say: "Hannock, in his radical technique is a true American luminist. His paintings, multi-layered in both surface and meaning, radiate in a manner that connects past and present..." (See Luminism (American art style)
)
----
Thanks to dyslexia, academics had never been easy for Hannock who attended The Albany Academy
and Trinity Pawling School before arriving at Deerfield Academy
, in Deerfield, Massachusetts, where he hoped a post-graduate year spent playing varsity hockey and improving his grades might ensure his entrance at Bowdoin College
the following year. That plan was a success, but Hannock's year at Deerfield proved life-altering for reasons he never foresaw.
Though he had always enjoyed art, it was at Deerfield Academy that he took his first art class since 6th grade––and was discovered by Daniel Hodermarsky, a man Hannock deems not just the most brilliant of mentors, but "the best draftsman I've ever seen." What Deerfield lacked in visual arts facilities at that time was more than made up for by Hodermarsky's passion. As he expressed to writer and classmate Duncan Christy in the Fall 2006 issue of the Deerfield Alumni Magazine: "I'd be doing what I do today because if I didn't, I'd go crazy. That's what Hodermarsky instilled in us. The idea that you could be excited by an idea to the point where you couldn't sleep."
"For all practical purposes, my life began when I moved to western Massachusetts," the artist states. Perhaps that's one reason why Hannock lasted at Maine's Bowdoin College only two years, after which participation in the 12-College Exchange Program enabled him to migrate south to his beloved western Massachusetts where he took classes at Smith College
. In 1976, Hannock earned a degree from Hampshire College
based on work done at both Bowdoin and Smith, and in June, 2009 was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts Degree from Bowdoin College.
While at Smith College, Hannock caught the eye of sculptor and printmaker Leonard Baskin
with whom he apprenticed for several years creating anatomical drawings, woodcuts, sculptures and paintings. He refers to his apprenticeship with Baskin as "the ultimate art school" after which he settled into an abandoned factory in Northampton, Massachusetts and began his life as a working and, sometimes struggling, artist.
In Luminosity: The Paintings of Stephen Hannock, Hannock's recounts the act of providence that became a turning point in his career. In 1983 Hannock had done a conventional oil painting of Northampton, Massachusetts called New England City (Northampton, Massachusetts)
in which glare from the uneven brushstrokes, as he puts it, "completely ruined the mood of the painting." Out of frustration, Hannock "took a rough-grit belt sander" and "sanded the sky right back down to the canvas in order to start all over again." This process of building up layers of paint on a canvas, sandpaper-polishing it, applying new layers of paint and polishing again––sometimes myriad times––is one that Hannock has personalized and perfected over the years.
Living in the Northampton/Amherst area of Massachusetts meant Hannock was part of an art community that included such painters as Gregory and Francis Gillespie, Scott Prior, Nanny Vonnegut, Alfred Leslie, and Chuck Close
. It also put him within the sphere of Elizabeth Mongan, Curator of the Smith College Museum, and her sister, Agnes Mongan, who was Director of the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University. For over twenty years this influential pair––to whom Hannock dedicated his Oxbow series from 1994-2004––lent Stephen Hannock their friendship and their tutelage. They urged him to study art history and its traditions. They also urged him to leave western Massachusetts for New York City.
In December, 1988, Newsweek
featured an article by writer Cathleen McGuigan entitled, Transforming the Landscape in which––along with artists such as April Gornik and Mark Innerst––Hannock was spotlighted as one of the "maverick" landscape painters whose seductive works map "a place that feels at once familiar and strange."
By October 17, 2005, Hannock was the subject of a Fortune
magazine article entitled, Portrait of an A-List Artist by Andy Serwer.http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2005/10/17/8358074/index.htm That article includes quotes from a museum director, a curator, and a critic––each with his own view of the artist:
In 1991, restaurant owner Danny Meyer
and his partner/chef Tom Colicchio
approached Hannock with the idea that he work with architect Peter Bentel on the interior of their New York City project, Gramercy Tavern, which opened in 1984. Their novel idea was that, rather than an afterthought, art could be a fundamental part of the restaurant's design. To date, Hannock has created over a dozen paintings for the team's restaurants, including a huge canvas of the Chelsea Highline at CraftSteak on the Hudson River in New York City.
The Oxbow: After Church, After Cole, Flooded (Flooded River for the Matriarchs E. & A. Mongan), Green Light (2000)––is part of the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Describing that work on the Metropolitan Museum of Art
website, Sabine Rewald writes: "Stephen Hannock captured this view of the Connecticut River
from the same vantage point chosen by Thomas Cole (1801–1848) for his famous View from Mount Holyoke, Northampton, Massachusetts, after a Thunderstorm—The Oxbow
(1836), in the collection of the American Wing of the Metropolitan Museum." Art critic Grace Glueck, writing in The New York Times, called Hannock's work "Among the more spectacular of the contemporary views" [of the Oxbow]. Glueck goes on to describe the painting as "A rather eerie elegy depicting the scene at twilight, it shows the Oxbow brimming at slight flood and surrounded by shimmering dark plains, heightened by a technique of sanding and polishing each layer of paint." Areas of the painting are textured with script writing referring to Hannock's life and career. To date, Hannock has painted over twenty Oxbow paintings.
Also part of the permanent collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, is the artist's painting Kaaterskill Falls for Frank Moore and Dan Hodermarsky, acquired in 2007. The painting includes collage elements and written words. In addition, Hannock's work is in such collections as the National Gallery of Art
, Washington, D.C.; The Smithsonian American Art Museum
, Washington, D.C.; the Whitney Museum of American Art
, New York, N.Y.; the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, CA; and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
, MA. Private collectors include Sting and Trudie Styler––who own over 20 of Hannock's works––as well as William and Karen Lauder, Meredith and Tom Brokaw
, Dick and Betty Hedreen, John McEnroe
, and Candice Bergen
.
In 1999 Hannock, along with the rest of the film's technical crew, won an Academy Award for "Special Visual Effects" for the film, What Dreams May Come
, which starred Robin Williams
and Cuba Gooding, Jr.
Dozens of paintings Hannock began in 1996 were the foundation for the film's "Painted World" scenes.
In 2002, the musician Sting commissioned Hannock to make a painting of his home city of Newcastle upon Tyne
, England to mark the 2004 grand opening of The Sage Gateshead––a performing arts center designed by Sir Norman Foster. Northern City Renaissance, Newcastle, England, (2008)http://www.twmuseums.org.uk/images/uploads/exhibitionimage/original/3804901.jpg was completed and unveiled in the Fall of 2008 at the Laing Art Gallery
in Newcastle upon Tyne. Newcastle, a former coal and shipbuilding capital that fell into harsh economic times by the 20th century has recently been enjoying a cultural regeneration. In its description of the 8 by 12 feet painting, the Laing describes how Hannock captures both past and present in his multi-layered work:
Speaking to Barbara Hodgson of The Journal Hannock shares his belief and hope that his painting tells the story of many cities: “'industrial cities coming back on the wings of culture'” – a comfort, he feels, in view of the current economic climate."
Hannock memorialized his wife in a painting that now hangs at Deerfield Academy. Begun while his wife was pregnant, Hannock signed and dated the large, nude portrait of Bridget on 10 October 2004, the day of his wife's memorial service in Williamstown, Massachusetts. Hannock entitled the painting Heroic Woman. As he explained in Heroic Artist, an article by Duncan Christy, "Portraiture is not what interests me. But sometimes you're overcome by an event or an adventure or by a person, and you've got to do that. The life she lived during those three years as a mother, wife and professional...as well as a daughter, sister and friend...was truly heroic."
Today, the artist and his daughter divide their time between Williamstown, Massachusetts and New York City, where Hannock is being closely monitored by Dr. David Abramson for a degenerative eye condition.
Published in December, 2008 by Hudson Hills Press, this monograph includes a wide spectrum of paintings spanning the artist's thirty year career, as well as drawings done while Hannock was traveling in Asia, Europe, and North America, and of friends in the music and arts, at work in their homes and studios.
Luminosity: The Paintings of Stephen Hannock, preface by S. Lane Faison, Jr., introduction by Duncan Christy. Published in 2000 by Chronicle Books.
Stephen Hannock; Mckenzie Fine Art, Inc. New York; Michel Kohn Gallery; Los Angeles; 2002; essay by Jason Rosenfeld.
Stephen Hannock, Space & Time; The Dayton Art Institute, 1999; Russell Gallery, Deerfield Academy, 1998; essay by Hal Fischer.
Master and Apprentice, Selected Works from Leonard Baskin and Stephen Hannock; Hampshire College Library Gallery, 1998; essay by Hosea Baskin.
Stephen Hannock; James Graham and Sons, New york, 1996; introduction by Hugh M. Davies, catalog essay by Robert Atkins.
After Church, After Cole: Stephen Hannock's Oxbow; Timken Museum of Art; 1995; essay by Robert Aktins.
Atkins, Robert. "Of Luminosity, Accident and Power Sanders: Stephen Hannock Talks to Roberts Atkins." [Exhibition Catalog] Stephen Hannock April 10-May 4, 1996. New York: James Graham & Sons. Introduction by Hugh M. Davies. Text by Robert Atkins.
http://www.stephenhannock.com/bio4.html
http://www.metmuseum.org/Works_of_Art/recent_acquisitions/2000/co_rec_n_america_2001.153.asp
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C04E4DF1031F930A2575AC0A9649C8B63&sec=&spon=&pag
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2005/10/17/8358074/index.htm
http://www.bowdoin.edu/bowdoinmagazine/archives/features/003584.shtml
http://www.alumniconnections.com/olc/pub/DRF/filemanager/Publications/MagazineFall06Hannock2.pdf
Hannock, Stephen. Luminosity: The Paintings of Stephen Hannock. Preface by S. Lane Faison, Jr. San Francisco, CA: Chronicle Books, 2000.
Belcove, Julie. (May, 1998). Dream Worker. W Magazine, 68.
McGuidan, C. (December, 1988) Transforming the Landscape. Newsweek, 60-62.
Rosenfeld, J. (2002). Imaginary Realism, Meaningful Contradictions. Stephen Hannock. McKenzie Fine Art Inc
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/27/dining/27turn.html?scp=1&sq=stephen%20hannock&st=cse
Luminosity
Luminosity is a measurement of brightness.-In photometry and color imaging:In photometry, luminosity is sometimes incorrectly used to refer to luminance, which is the density of luminous intensity in a given direction. The SI unit for luminance is candela per square metre.The luminosity function...
using a signature technique that involves building up layers of paint on the canvas, sandpaper-polishing it, applying new layers of paint and polishing again. Many critics have compared Hannock's paintings to such forebears as Thomas Cole
Thomas Cole
Thomas Cole was an English-born American artist. He is regarded as the founder of the Hudson River School, an American art movement that flourished in the mid-19th century...
, Frederic Edwin Church
Frederic Edwin Church
Frederic Edwin Church was an American landscape painter born in Hartford, Connecticut. He was a central figure in the Hudson River School of American landscape painters...
, J.M.W. Turner, Albert Pinkham Ryder
Albert Pinkham Ryder
Albert Pinkham Ryder was an American painter best known for his poetic and moody allegorical works and seascapes, as well as his eccentric personality...
, and Louis Remy Mignot, among other nineteenth-century masters. Art Historian Jason Rosenfeld, in his 2002 essay Imaginary Realism, Meaningful Contradictions, describes Hannock's work as "both distinctively modern as well as reflective of landscape traditions." And Rosenfeld goes on to say: "Hannock, in his radical technique is a true American luminist. His paintings, multi-layered in both surface and meaning, radiate in a manner that connects past and present..." (See Luminism (American art style)
Luminism (American art style)
Luminism is an American landscape painting style of the 1850s – 1870s, characterized by effects of light in landscapes, through using aerial perspective, and concealing visible brushstrokes...
)
----
Early life & education
Stephen Hannock was born on March 31, 1951 in Albany, New York. His mother, Elizabeth, was a registered nurse and a professional photographer. His father, Marshall, was proprietor of a number of bowling centers throughout New York State. While his mother's artistic eye is a gift that became obvious later, it was immediately clear that Hannock had inherited his father's athleticism: he began playing hockey in fifth grade and continued through high school and into college where his ambidextrous goal tending skills meant he was always sought after as starting goalie.Thanks to dyslexia, academics had never been easy for Hannock who attended The Albany Academy
The Albany Academy
The Albany Academy is an independent college preparatory day school for boys in Albany, New York, USA, enrolling students from Preschool to Grade 12. It was established in 1813 by a charter signed by Mayor Philip Schuyler Van Rensselaer and the city council of Albany...
and Trinity Pawling School before arriving at Deerfield Academy
Deerfield Academy
Deerfield Academy is an independent, coeducational boarding school in Deerfield, Massachusetts, United States. It is a four-year college-preparatory school with approximately 600 students and about 100 faculty, all of whom live on or near campus....
, in Deerfield, Massachusetts, where he hoped a post-graduate year spent playing varsity hockey and improving his grades might ensure his entrance at Bowdoin College
Bowdoin College
Bowdoin College , founded in 1794, is an elite private liberal arts college located in the coastal Maine town of Brunswick, Maine. As of 2011, U.S. News and World Report ranks Bowdoin 6th among liberal arts colleges in the United States. At times, it was ranked as high as 4th in the country. It is...
the following year. That plan was a success, but Hannock's year at Deerfield proved life-altering for reasons he never foresaw.
Though he had always enjoyed art, it was at Deerfield Academy that he took his first art class since 6th grade––and was discovered by Daniel Hodermarsky, a man Hannock deems not just the most brilliant of mentors, but "the best draftsman I've ever seen." What Deerfield lacked in visual arts facilities at that time was more than made up for by Hodermarsky's passion. As he expressed to writer and classmate Duncan Christy in the Fall 2006 issue of the Deerfield Alumni Magazine: "I'd be doing what I do today because if I didn't, I'd go crazy. That's what Hodermarsky instilled in us. The idea that you could be excited by an idea to the point where you couldn't sleep."
"For all practical purposes, my life began when I moved to western Massachusetts," the artist states. Perhaps that's one reason why Hannock lasted at Maine's Bowdoin College only two years, after which participation in the 12-College Exchange Program enabled him to migrate south to his beloved western Massachusetts where he took classes at Smith College
Smith College
Smith College is a private, independent women's liberal arts college located in Northampton, Massachusetts. It is the largest member of the Seven Sisters...
. In 1976, Hannock earned a degree from Hampshire College
Hampshire College
Hampshire College is a private liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1965 as an experiment in alternative education, in association with four other colleges in the Pioneer Valley: Amherst College, Smith College, Mount Holyoke College, and the University of Massachusetts...
based on work done at both Bowdoin and Smith, and in June, 2009 was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts Degree from Bowdoin College.
While at Smith College, Hannock caught the eye of sculptor and printmaker Leonard Baskin
Leonard Baskin
Leonard Baskin was an American sculptor, book-illustrator, wood-engraver, printmaker, graphic artist, writer and teacher.-Life and work:...
with whom he apprenticed for several years creating anatomical drawings, woodcuts, sculptures and paintings. He refers to his apprenticeship with Baskin as "the ultimate art school" after which he settled into an abandoned factory in Northampton, Massachusetts and began his life as a working and, sometimes struggling, artist.
Early Career • 1974-1984: Northampton, Massachusetts
While studying with Leonard Baskin, Hannock began experimenting with phosphorescent paints, creating large scale, imaginary landscapes that would glow when placed under black lights. These works became the basis for the artist's first museum shows at the Smith College Museum of Art (where he was the youngest artist ever to be given a one-man show) and the Fine Arts Center at the University of Massachusetts.In Luminosity: The Paintings of Stephen Hannock, Hannock's recounts the act of providence that became a turning point in his career. In 1983 Hannock had done a conventional oil painting of Northampton, Massachusetts called New England City (Northampton, Massachusetts)
in which glare from the uneven brushstrokes, as he puts it, "completely ruined the mood of the painting." Out of frustration, Hannock "took a rough-grit belt sander" and "sanded the sky right back down to the canvas in order to start all over again." This process of building up layers of paint on a canvas, sandpaper-polishing it, applying new layers of paint and polishing again––sometimes myriad times––is one that Hannock has personalized and perfected over the years.
Living in the Northampton/Amherst area of Massachusetts meant Hannock was part of an art community that included such painters as Gregory and Francis Gillespie, Scott Prior, Nanny Vonnegut, Alfred Leslie, and Chuck Close
Chuck Close
Charles Thomas "Chuck" Close is an American painter and photographer who achieved fame as a photorealist, through his massive-scale portraits...
. It also put him within the sphere of Elizabeth Mongan, Curator of the Smith College Museum, and her sister, Agnes Mongan, who was Director of the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University. For over twenty years this influential pair––to whom Hannock dedicated his Oxbow series from 1994-2004––lent Stephen Hannock their friendship and their tutelage. They urged him to study art history and its traditions. They also urged him to leave western Massachusetts for New York City.
Career • 1984-Present: New York City & Williamstown, Massachusetts
In 1984, Hannock moved from Northampton, Massachusetts to New York City where galleries were awash with "neo" and conceptual works which, at first glance, seemed a world apart from the landscapes Hannock was creating. Hannock relied on grants from patron Irene Mennen Hunter––along with odd jobs and occasional work as a fashion model––to pay for studio space and groceries. As Hannock says, "It took me two years before anyone would even look at my slides."In December, 1988, Newsweek
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
featured an article by writer Cathleen McGuigan entitled, Transforming the Landscape in which––along with artists such as April Gornik and Mark Innerst––Hannock was spotlighted as one of the "maverick" landscape painters whose seductive works map "a place that feels at once familiar and strange."
By October 17, 2005, Hannock was the subject of a Fortune
Fortune (magazine)
Fortune is a global business magazine published by Time Inc. Founded by Henry Luce in 1930, the publishing business, consisting of Time, Life, Fortune, and Sports Illustrated, grew to become Time Warner. In turn, AOL grew as it acquired Time Warner in 2000 when Time Warner was the world's largest...
magazine article entitled, Portrait of an A-List Artist by Andy Serwer.http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2005/10/17/8358074/index.htm That article includes quotes from a museum director, a curator, and a critic––each with his own view of the artist:
"Because his works are so arresting and immediately accessible, much of the contemporary art world is deeply suspicious of him," says Hugh Davies, director of the Museum of Contemporary Art San DiegoMuseum of Contemporary Art San DiegoThe Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego , in San Diego, California, USA, is an art museum focused on the collection, preservation, exhibition, and interpretation of works of art from 1950 to the present.-History:...
. "They think it's too pretty to be profound. It takes time to realize that there is real profundity and depth to his work."
"What is interesting is that Hannock has defied modernism," says Gary Tinterow, Engelhard curator in charge of 19th-century, modern, and contemporary art at the Metropolitan Museum. "He isn't doing abstract painting, or painting according to critical demand. He painted what he wanted to make. The key to Hannock's work is that it is beautiful. Since the fall of modernism as an exclusive ideology, anything goes."
"Are Hannock's paintings too derivative? Too accessible? Certainly a devotee of the avant-garde would say so. And it's true that neither the Museum of Modern ArtMuseum of Modern ArtThe Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...
nor the Whitney, the two pantheons of contemporary art, have Hannock's paintings in their collections. Several prominent art critics contacted by FORTUNE either didn't want to talk about Hannock or hadn't heard of him. When I explained to the critic Robert HughesRobert Hughes-Politicians:*Robert Hughes, Baron Hughes of Woodside , British Labour politician, MP for Aberdeen North*Robert Gurth Hughes , British Conservative politician, MP for Harrow West-Sportsmen:*Robert Hughes , of Stamford FC...
Robert Hughes (critic)Robert Hughes (critic)Robert Studley Forrest Hughes, AO is an Australian-born art critic, writer and television documentary maker who has resided in New York since 1970.-Early life:...
that many wealthy collectors own Hannock's work, he responded, "The taste of the American rich is shit.""
Note: In 2007, the Whitney Museum of American ArtWhitney Museum of American ArtThe Whitney Museum of American Art, often referred to simply as "the Whitney", is an art museum with a focus on 20th- and 21st-century American art. Located at 945 Madison Avenue at 75th Street in New York City, the Whitney's permanent collection contains more than 18,000 works in a wide variety of...
acquired one of Hannock's works––Maternal Nocturne: Clearing Storm (Mass MoCA #66-C); polished mixed media on envelope over Chuck Close daguerreotype; 2007.
In 1991, restaurant owner Danny Meyer
Danny Meyer
Daniel "Danny" Meyer is a New York City restaurateur and the CEO of Union Square Hospitality Group .-Personal life:...
and his partner/chef Tom Colicchio
Tom Colicchio
Thomas Patrick "Tom" Colicchio is an American celebrity chef. He co-founded the Gramercy Tavern in New York City, and formerly served as a co-owner and as the executive chef. He is also the founder of Craft and Colicchio & Sons restaurants...
approached Hannock with the idea that he work with architect Peter Bentel on the interior of their New York City project, Gramercy Tavern, which opened in 1984. Their novel idea was that, rather than an afterthought, art could be a fundamental part of the restaurant's design. To date, Hannock has created over a dozen paintings for the team's restaurants, including a huge canvas of the Chelsea Highline at CraftSteak on the Hudson River in New York City.
The Oxbow: After Church, After Cole, Flooded (Flooded River for the Matriarchs E. & A. Mongan), Green Light (2000)––is part of the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Describing that work on the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a renowned art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is one of the...
website, Sabine Rewald writes: "Stephen Hannock captured this view of the Connecticut River
Connecticut River
The Connecticut River is the largest and longest river in New England, and also an American Heritage River. It flows roughly south, starting from the Fourth Connecticut Lake in New Hampshire. After flowing through the remaining Connecticut Lakes and Lake Francis, it defines the border between the...
from the same vantage point chosen by Thomas Cole (1801–1848) for his famous View from Mount Holyoke, Northampton, Massachusetts, after a Thunderstorm—The Oxbow
The Oxbow
View from Mount Holyoke, Northampton, Massachusetts, after a Thunderstorm, commonly known as The Oxbow, is a painting by Thomas Cole.-Background:...
(1836), in the collection of the American Wing of the Metropolitan Museum." Art critic Grace Glueck, writing in The New York Times, called Hannock's work "Among the more spectacular of the contemporary views" [of the Oxbow]. Glueck goes on to describe the painting as "A rather eerie elegy depicting the scene at twilight, it shows the Oxbow brimming at slight flood and surrounded by shimmering dark plains, heightened by a technique of sanding and polishing each layer of paint." Areas of the painting are textured with script writing referring to Hannock's life and career. To date, Hannock has painted over twenty Oxbow paintings.
Also part of the permanent collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, is the artist's painting Kaaterskill Falls for Frank Moore and Dan Hodermarsky, acquired in 2007. The painting includes collage elements and written words. In addition, Hannock's work is in such collections as the National Gallery of Art
National Gallery of Art
The National Gallery of Art and its Sculpture Garden is a national art museum, located on the National Mall between 3rd and 9th Streets at Constitution Avenue NW, in Washington, DC...
, Washington, D.C.; The Smithsonian American Art Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
The Smithsonian American Art Museum is a museum in Washington, D.C. with an extensive collection of American art.Part of the Smithsonian Institution, the museum has a broad variety of American art that covers all regions and art movements found in the United States...
, Washington, D.C.; the Whitney Museum of American Art
Whitney Museum of American Art
The Whitney Museum of American Art, often referred to simply as "the Whitney", is an art museum with a focus on 20th- and 21st-century American art. Located at 945 Madison Avenue at 75th Street in New York City, the Whitney's permanent collection contains more than 18,000 works in a wide variety of...
, New York, N.Y.; the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, CA; and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts, is one of the largest museums in the United States, attracting over one million visitors a year. It contains over 450,000 works of art, making it one of the most comprehensive collections in the Americas...
, MA. Private collectors include Sting and Trudie Styler––who own over 20 of Hannock's works––as well as William and Karen Lauder, Meredith and Tom Brokaw
Tom Brokaw
Thomas John "Tom" Brokaw is an American television journalist and author best known as the anchor and managing editor of NBC Nightly News from 1982 to 2004. He is the author of The Greatest Generation and other books and the recipient of numerous awards and honors...
, Dick and Betty Hedreen, John McEnroe
John McEnroe
John Patrick McEnroe, Jr. is a former world no. 1 professional tennis player from the United States. During his career, he won seven Grand Slam singles titles , nine Grand Slam men's doubles titles, and one Grand Slam mixed doubles title...
, and Candice Bergen
Candice Bergen
Candice Patricia Bergen is an American actress and former fashion model.She is known for starring in two TV series, as the title character on the situation comedy Murphy Brown , for which she won five Emmy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards; and as Shirley Schmidt on the comedy-drama Boston Legal...
.
In 1999 Hannock, along with the rest of the film's technical crew, won an Academy Award for "Special Visual Effects" for the film, What Dreams May Come
What Dreams May Come
What Dreams May Come is a 1978 novel by Richard Matheson. The plot centers on Chris, a man who dies and goes to Heaven, but eventually descends into Hell to rescue his wife...
, which starred Robin Williams
Robin Williams
Robin McLaurin Williams is an American actor and comedian. Rising to fame with his role as the alien Mork in the TV series Mork and Mindy, and later stand-up comedy work, Williams has performed in many feature films since 1980. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance...
and Cuba Gooding, Jr.
Cuba Gooding, Jr.
Cuba M. Gooding, Jr. is an American actor. He is perhaps best known for his Academy Award-winning portrayal of Rod Tidwell in Cameron Crowe's 1996 film Jerry Maguire, and his critically acclaimed performance as Tré Styles in John Singleton's 1991 film Boyz n the Hood.-Early life:Gooding was born...
Dozens of paintings Hannock began in 1996 were the foundation for the film's "Painted World" scenes.
In 2002, the musician Sting commissioned Hannock to make a painting of his home city of Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne is a city and metropolitan borough of Tyne and Wear, in North East England. Historically a part of Northumberland, it is situated on the north bank of the River Tyne...
, England to mark the 2004 grand opening of The Sage Gateshead––a performing arts center designed by Sir Norman Foster. Northern City Renaissance, Newcastle, England, (2008)http://www.twmuseums.org.uk/images/uploads/exhibitionimage/original/3804901.jpg was completed and unveiled in the Fall of 2008 at the Laing Art Gallery
Laing Art Gallery
The Laing Art Gallery in Newcastle upon Tyne, England is located on New Bridge Street. It was opened in 1904 and is now managed by Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums and sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. In front of the gallery is the Blue Carpet.The gallery holds oil paintings,...
in Newcastle upon Tyne. Newcastle, a former coal and shipbuilding capital that fell into harsh economic times by the 20th century has recently been enjoying a cultural regeneration. In its description of the 8 by 12 feet painting, the Laing describes how Hannock captures both past and present in his multi-layered work:
Hannock depicts a view of the River Tyne as it is today, with The Sage Gateshead, BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art and the Millennium Bridge. Partially hidden from sight under the layers or paint are images and text relating to the city's mining heritage.http://www.twmuseums.org.uk/laing/thingstoseeanddo/exhibition/northern-city-renaissance/
Speaking to Barbara Hodgson of The Journal Hannock shares his belief and hope that his painting tells the story of many cities: “'industrial cities coming back on the wings of culture'” – a comfort, he feels, in view of the current economic climate."
Personal life
It was through his work with Meyer and Colicchio that Hannock met his wife, Bridget Watkins, who was PR director and assistant to Danny Meyer. The couple were married in 2000 and their daughter, Georgia, was born in June, 2000. While pregnant, Bridget was troubled by double vision which doctors ascribed to her pregnancy. But the disturbing symptoms continued after Georgia's birth and, on the morning of September 11, 2001––as planes flew into the World Trade Center, just down the street from their apartment–-Bridget received a call from her neurologist informing her that she had a brain tumor. She died in October, 2004.Hannock memorialized his wife in a painting that now hangs at Deerfield Academy. Begun while his wife was pregnant, Hannock signed and dated the large, nude portrait of Bridget on 10 October 2004, the day of his wife's memorial service in Williamstown, Massachusetts. Hannock entitled the painting Heroic Woman. As he explained in Heroic Artist, an article by Duncan Christy, "Portraiture is not what interests me. But sometimes you're overcome by an event or an adventure or by a person, and you've got to do that. The life she lived during those three years as a mother, wife and professional...as well as a daughter, sister and friend...was truly heroic."
Today, the artist and his daughter divide their time between Williamstown, Massachusetts and New York City, where Hannock is being closely monitored by Dr. David Abramson for a degenerative eye condition.
Publications
Stephen Hannock by Jason Rosenfeld, Martha Hoppin, Garrett White and with an introduction by Mark C. Taylor.Published in December, 2008 by Hudson Hills Press, this monograph includes a wide spectrum of paintings spanning the artist's thirty year career, as well as drawings done while Hannock was traveling in Asia, Europe, and North America, and of friends in the music and arts, at work in their homes and studios.
Luminosity: The Paintings of Stephen Hannock, preface by S. Lane Faison, Jr., introduction by Duncan Christy. Published in 2000 by Chronicle Books.
Stephen Hannock; Mckenzie Fine Art, Inc. New York; Michel Kohn Gallery; Los Angeles; 2002; essay by Jason Rosenfeld.
Stephen Hannock, Space & Time; The Dayton Art Institute, 1999; Russell Gallery, Deerfield Academy, 1998; essay by Hal Fischer.
Master and Apprentice, Selected Works from Leonard Baskin and Stephen Hannock; Hampshire College Library Gallery, 1998; essay by Hosea Baskin.
Stephen Hannock; James Graham and Sons, New york, 1996; introduction by Hugh M. Davies, catalog essay by Robert Atkins.
After Church, After Cole: Stephen Hannock's Oxbow; Timken Museum of Art; 1995; essay by Robert Aktins.
External links
Atkins, Robert. "Of Luminosity, Accident and Power Sanders: Stephen Hannock Talks to Roberts Atkins." [Exhibition Catalog] Stephen Hannock April 10-May 4, 1996. New York: James Graham & Sons. Introduction by Hugh M. Davies. Text by Robert Atkins.
http://www.stephenhannock.com/bio4.html
http://www.metmuseum.org/Works_of_Art/recent_acquisitions/2000/co_rec_n_america_2001.153.asp
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C04E4DF1031F930A2575AC0A9649C8B63&sec=&spon=&pag
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2005/10/17/8358074/index.htm
http://www.bowdoin.edu/bowdoinmagazine/archives/features/003584.shtml
http://www.alumniconnections.com/olc/pub/DRF/filemanager/Publications/MagazineFall06Hannock2.pdf
Hannock, Stephen. Luminosity: The Paintings of Stephen Hannock. Preface by S. Lane Faison, Jr. San Francisco, CA: Chronicle Books, 2000.
Belcove, Julie. (May, 1998). Dream Worker. W Magazine, 68.
McGuidan, C. (December, 1988) Transforming the Landscape. Newsweek, 60-62.
Rosenfeld, J. (2002). Imaginary Realism, Meaningful Contradictions. Stephen Hannock. McKenzie Fine Art Inc
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/27/dining/27turn.html?scp=1&sq=stephen%20hannock&st=cse