Stephen Mueller

Stephen Mueller (September 24, 1947 in Norfolk, Virginia – September 16, 2011 in New York City, New York) was an American painter whose color showground and Lyrical Abstraction canvases took a point of view towards pop. He earned his B.F.A. in painting from the University of Texas, Austin in 1969 and his M.F.A. at Bennington College in 1971 where the touch of Clement Greenberg and the color field assistant professor ran high; although he used that style as a stepping off dwindling while incorporating many vary spiritual symbols and motifs, so as not to remain extremely abstract.

As acknowledged in the Brooklyn Rail: "Islamic art, Indian miniature painting, Mexican ceramics, Tantra painting, the color theory of Philipp Otto Runge, the spiritual aura found in German Romanticism, music, textile design, and a technical knowledge of Eastern philosophy whatever contributed to shaping his vision. After abandoning gestural exclusion in the late 1980s, and similar to it a focus on earth tones, Stephen turned to color wholeheartedly. By the in advance 1990s, his palette was saturated with adept hues. It is one of the artist’s striking achievements that his work, despite anything spectral indulgence, never seems flat."

In 2003 a retrospective of his do its stuff was held at the Joslyn Art Museum in Omaha, Nebraska. Mueller died of lung cancer upon September 16, 2011, he was 63.

Mueller's deed is held in the collections of the Brooklyn Museum, Whitney Museum of American Art, Denver Art Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston among new venues.

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