BIOGRAPHY

1924
Born December 24, New York, NY

1938
Studies at the Art Students League with Robert Brackman

1939
Begins painting

1941/42
Attends Hans Hofmann’s School of Fine Art

1942-46
Serves in the U.S. Army in North Africa, China, Burma, India. Discharged April, 1946

1946
Establishes first studio on Sheridan Square. Marries Nina Caiserman, a dancer with the Martha Graham Dance Company (marriage is subsequently annulled)

1948-50
Resumes classes with Hans Hofmann

1951
Exhibits work under the name Michael Stuart in the Ninth Street Show, curated by Leo Castelli and the Artists Club. Begins work as a truck driver and loading dock laborer

1952
Moves to East Second Street and becomes a member of the Artists Club. Meets and becomes friends with Frank O’Hara. Shows work in group exhibitions at the Tanager Gallery and Stable Gallery, New York, NY

1953
First solo exhibition at Tibor de Nagy Gallery, New York, NY

1952-54
Shares a studio and has a relationship with Joan Mitchell

1955
Moves studio to 86 East 10th Street New York, NY, (near Resnick and deKooning). Works included in U.S. Painting: Some Recent Directions, Curated by Thomas B. Hess, the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN. Paints Sardines

1956
Fist solo exhibition at Poindexter Gallery, New York, NY. Paints Madame Recamier

1957
Shares summer house with Norman Bluhm in Springs, Easthampton. Begins House Painting series. Walter Chrysler buys seventeen paintings. Lee Krasner introduces him to Patsy Southgate

1958
Marries Patsy Southgate and becomes stepfather to Luke and Sara Carey Matthiessen. Paints House of Medici, Split Level, and Summer House

1959
Martha Jackson purchases ten paintings

1960
First of four solo exhibitions with Martha Jackson Gallery. Collaborates with Frank O’Hara on “Odes” (a book of poetry and silkscreens). Paints Georgica Prospect, Brigham Young / House in Salt Lake which become part of a series, later named by Klaus Kertesz as “Architecting Paint”

1961
Visiting Artist at the University of California at Berkeley

1962
Acquires studio from Mark Rothko at 222 Bowery, New York, NY
1965
Admitted as patient to the New York Psychiatric Institute. Divorces Patsy Southgate and leaves Martha Jackson Gallery

1967
Dismissed from Psychiatric Institute. Visiting Artist at University of Minnesota. Exhibits work at the opening of Bykert Gallery, New York, NY

1968
Meets artist Lynn Umlauf

1979
Marries Lynn Umlauf. Starts teaching at the School of Visual Arts, New York, NY. First solo exhibition at Galleria Peccolo, Livorno, Italy

1980
Together with Lynn begins to reside and work in Italy during the summer months at Le Grotte Vecchie. Starts series of mixed media works titled Codex Sermugnano

1982-83
Starts series of paintings titled Retreat from Landscape

1984-85
Rents house for summer months in Pietrarubbia (Pesaro), Italy

1987
Rents a year-round farm house in Tuscany, Spannocchia (Siena). Begins painting large canvases relating to the memory of Italian Masters of the Renaissance and Florentine and Sienese Mannerism

1990
First solo exhibition at Lennon, Weinberg, New York, NY

1993
First solo exhibition at Manny Silverman Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

1997
Goldberg Variations (monograph) published by Edizioni Primaprint

2007
Died December 30, New York, NY