McClain Gallery is pleased to announce Ted Stamm (1944 – 1984), our first solo show of the late artist’s abstract work. The exhibition will include a major shaped canvas painting, smaller paintings on shaped supports, several iconic graphite drawings, collage, photographic documentation of his street art, and archival material. The grouping represents a broad range of the meticulously documented and varied branches of his art practice. One of the foremost multidisciplinary and conceptual artists working in SoHo in downtown Manhattan in the 1970’s and early 80’s, Ted Stamm is recognized as one of the more rigorous and impactful artists of his generation. His untimely death at the age of forty has translated into some obscurity to his name, but the mystique of the man and intensity of his production make up for his short lifetime. We are grateful to the Ted Stamm Estate for their collaboration on this exhibition.
In his New York City studio, starting in 1968, Stamm developed and researched a focused series of paintings, works on paper, and studies that followed strict rules and forms. Woosters, Dodgers, and documentation of his street art series titled Designators carry the bulk of our exhibition. Stamm’s practice extended beyond his studio, to areas including mail art, artists books, photography, site-specific installations, and many others. Many of Stamm’s inspirations derive from observing everyday objects, experiences, and events, such as seeing an abstract shape on the street or lines on a baseball field. Stamm’s works are fully abstract, and it is unnecessary for the viewer to know the origins of what they are looking at in order to experience them the way the artist intended. Black is a consistent component of Stamm’s work, a color that he associated with rebellion, rigor, and reduction: the keystones of his expansive practice.
Ted Stamm (b. 1944, Brooklyn, NY; d. 1984, New York, NY) exhibited internationally during his lifetime, including in Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States. His work has been included in solo and group exhibitions at venues such as Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY, USA; Brooklyn Museum, NY, USA; MoMA PS1 Contemporary Art Center, Long Island City, NY, USA; The Clocktower, New York, NY, USA; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA, USA; Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY, USA; Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT, USA; Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA, USA; Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, OH, USA; Museum of Art Fort Lauderdale, FL, USA; Oklahoma City Museum of Art, OK, USA; Santa Barbara Museum of Art , CA, USA; Grand Rapids Art Museum, MI, USA; Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, AL, USA; Denver Art Museum, CO, USA; Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, USA; Akademie Der Kunste, Berlin, Germany; and Louisiana Museum, Humlebaek, Denmark. In addition, Stamm exhibited his work at the legendary Downtown artist-founded venues 112 Greene Street (1975), Artists Space (1975, 1980) and Franklin Furnace (1977, 1980).
Stamm received awards in Painting from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation (1983) and the National Endowments for the Arts, NEA (1981–1982). Stamm’s work is included in the collections of Brooklyn Museum, NY, USA; Carnegie Museum, Pittsburgh, PA, USA; Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris, France; Hall Art Collection, Derneburg, Germany and Reading, Vermont; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA, USA; Phoenix Art Museum, AZ, USA; Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, CT, USA; Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, USA; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY, USA; and Western Australia Art Gallery, Perth, Australia.