STELLA SULLIVAN (1924-2017)

Stella Sullivan was born in Houston, Texas. She earned her degree in architecture from Rice Institute (now Rice University) and worked for her father in architectural drafting. She received private lessons from artist, Ola McNeill Davidson, and attended classes at Museum School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Sullivan moved to Michigan where she studied at the Detroit Society of Arts and Crafts, later transferring to the Cranbrook Academy of Art where she graduated with her master of fine arts degree. Sullivan was an instructor at the Museum School (now Glassell School) of Art, the University of Houston, Sam Houston State University, and the University of Delaware. She established the Stella Sullivan School of Art where she taught painting, drawing, design, and silk-screening during the 1970s. Her career as an artist and teacher in Houston spans seven decades.

Selected Biographical and Career Highlights

1924, Born in Houston, TX.
1945, Earns B.A. from Rice Institute (studies Architecture for 3 years)
1949-1950, Studies at Museum of Fine Arts School, Houston,
1950-1951, Studies at School of Detroit Society of Arts and Crafts, Detroit, Michigan
1954, Earns MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan
1961-1970, Instructor at Museum of Fine Arts School, Houston (9 years)
1961-62, Instructor at Brazos Port Art League, Freeport, TX
1962-1966, Instructor at University of Houston; established printmaking department
1963, Instructor at University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware (1 summer)
1963-64, Instructor at Gallery 75, Conroe, TX
1970-71, Instructor at Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, TX (1 year)
1970-71, Instructor of workshops in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Telluride, CO
1971, Opens the Stella Sullivan School of Art, Houston, TX (30 years)
1999-2017, Holds studio at Art Square Studios on South Main
2017, Dies in Houston, TX at age 93

Selected Prizes, Awards

Houston Annual: Purchase Prize 1954; Cash Prize 1951; Honorable Mention 1953
- 1951 Cash Prize/Schlumberger Award, Still Life with Squash, oil
- 1953 Honorable Mention Purchase Prize, Eucharistic Still Life, oil
- 1954 Purchase Prize/Contemporary Arts Association, Still Life with Blue Fruit, oil
Annual Texas Crafts: Cash Prize 1955
- 1955 Cash Prize/Decorated Fabric Award, Ceramic Line Print, silk screen (image on cover of catalogue)
Second Prize – Houston Post 6thAnnual Easter Art Show
First Prize, Honorable Mention and Ribbons in various Art League of Houston Shows
Ceramic Jewelry Award – San Antonio Craft Guild Third Regional
Honorable Mention – Fabric – International Craft Alliance – McAllen, Texas
Honorable Mention – Acrylic painting – Rice University Alumni Association
Honorable Mention – Drawing – Rice University Alumni Association
Fiber Artists of Houston, Honorable Mention Printed Fabric
Seventh Annual Texas Crafts Exhibits, Craft Guild of Dallas and the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts – Decorated Fabric Award
Craft Guild of San Antonio, Third Regional Exhibition, Witte Museum, 1962

Selected Exhibitions

1951 26th Annual Exhibition of Work by Houston Artists, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas (cash prize)
1951 13th Annual Exhibition of Texas Painting and Sculpture 1951–1952, circulated: Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas; Witte Museum, San Antonio, Texas
1952 27th Annual Exhibition of Work by Houston Artists, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas
1952 14th Annual Exhibition of Texas Painting and Sculpture 1952, circulated: Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, Witte Museum, San Antonio; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas
1953 28th Annual Exhibition of Work by Houston Artists, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas (honorable mention)
1954 29th Annual Exhibition of Work by Houston Artists, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas (purchase prize)
1954 Solo, Arts and Crafts Gallery, Columbus, Ohio
1954 Solo, Degree Show, Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan
1955 (March) 30th Annual Exhibition of Work by Houston Artists, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas
1955 7th Annual Texas Crafts Exhibition, Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, Dallas, Texas (cash prize)
1955 First Annual Religious Art Show, University of St. Thomas, Houston, Texas
1955 (December) 31st Annual Exhibition of Houston Artists, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas

· 1955, Solo, The Playhouse Theater, Houston, Texas

1956 8th Annual Texas Crafts Exhibition, Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, Dallas, Texas
1956 Annual Art Rental Exhibit, Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, Texas
1957 7th Annual Houston Post Easter Art Exhibit, Houston Art League Building, Houston, Texas
1959–60 34–35th Annual Houston Artists Exhibition, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas
1959, 1961 Solo, Rudi’s Club, Houston, Texas
1961 Texas Watercolor Society 12th Annual Exhibition, Witte Museum, San Antonio, Texas; selection circulated: Junior League, Galveston, A&M University, College Station; Dallas Public Library, Dallas; A&I College, Kingsville, Gates Gallery, Port Arthur; Wichita Falls Art Association, Wichita Falls; Waco Art Forum, Waco; Texas Fine Arts Association, Austin; Texas Western College, El Paso, Texas
1961, Solo, Art League Studio Tour, Houston, Texas
1962 Craft Guild of San Antonio 3rd Regional Exhibition, Witte Museum, San Antonio, Texas
1962, 1972 Solo, Bank of Texas, Houston, Texas
1962–63 Museum School Faculty Exhibition, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas
1964-65, 1967-68 Solos, Montgomery County Library, Conroe, Texas
1967 Sales and Rental Exhibition, Laguna Gloria Art Museum, Austin, Texas
1968 Solo, Houston Baptist College, Houston, Texas
1968 Solo, Galleria del Mar, Freeport, Texas
1969 Southwest Biennale Craft Exhibit, International Folk Art Museum, Santa Fe, New Mexico
1970-1971 Solos, Houston Public Library, Houston, Texas
1970 Solo, Sheridan Art Gallery, Telluride, Colorado
1971-72 Solo, Stella Sullivan School of Art, Houston, TX
1972, Solo,Stella Sullivan School of Art, Houston, TX
1973, Solo,Kate Frost, Houston, TX
1976-78, Solo, Surroundings, Houston, TX
1982, Solo,Ouisie’s Table, Houston, TX
Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, Texas
Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, Texas
Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, Michigan
Beaumont Art Museum, Beaumont, Texas
Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock, Arkansas
Corpus Christi Museum, Corpus Christi, TX
Masur Art Museum, Monroe, LA
Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock, AR
Texas Visions, Houston, TX
International Folk Art Museum, Santa Fe, NM
Texas Watercolor Society, San Antonio, TX
Houston Early Texas Art Group, Fondren Library at Rice University, Houston, TX
Houston Art in Houston Collections, The Heritage Society and CASETA
Leslie Muth Gallery, Houston, Texas
Lowell Collins Gallery, Houston, Texas
2004, Modern Madonna, Biblical Arts Museum, Dallas, TX
2004, Timeless: A Retrospective of Selected Women Artists of Texas, 1940 to Present,David Dike Estates, Dallas, TX
2004–05 Rice Institute and the Visual Arts in Houston: 1900–1960, Fondren Library, Rice University, Houston, Texas
2005 Solo, David Dike Fine Art, Dallas, Texas
2006 Houston Art in Houston Collections: Works from 1900 to 1965, Heritage Society Museum, Houston, Texas
2006–07 Of This Vast State: Women Artists of Texas, 1900–1960, Women’s Museum, Dallas, Texas
2007 Now and Then: Contemporary and Early Texas Artists, Texas State University, San Marcos, Texas
2007 Timeless: A Retrospective of Selected Women Artists of Texas, 1940 to Present, David Dike Fine Art, Dallas, Texas; William Reaves Fine Art, Houston, Texas; Wichita Falls Museum of Art at Midwestern State University, Wichita Falls, Texas
2008 Founders of Houston Art: Thirty Artists Who Led the Way, William Reaves Fine Art, Houston, Texas
2009 Lone Star Still Lifes, Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum, Canyon, Texas
2009 Back to the Future: Elements of “Modern” in Mid-Century Texas Art, William Reaves Fine Art, Houston, Texas
2009 A Texas Sampler: Vintage Paintings by Thirty Texas Artists, William Reaves Fine Art, Houston, Texas
2009 Texas Paper: Watercolors, Pastels and Drawings from the Lone Star State, 1938-2008, William Reaves Fine Art, Houston, Texas
2009-10 Texas Art Seen, Grace Museum, Abilene, Texas
2010 Third Anniversary Show: A Tribute to Houston Artists, William Reaves Fine Art, Houston, Texas
2010 Pioneering Women: Three Modernists in Houston—Dorothy Hood, Leila McConnell, Stella Sullivan, William Reaves Fine Art, Houston, Texas
2011 Southeast Texas Art: Cross-Currents and Influences, 1925–1965, Art Museum of Southeast Texas, Beaumont, Texas
2011 Lone Star Modernism: A Celebration of Mid-Century Texas Art, William Reaves Fine Art, Houston, Texas
2011 Portrait of Houston: 1900–2011, Alliance Gallery, Houston Arts Alliance, Houston, Texas (catalogue)
2011 Breakthrough: Sixty Years of Texas Abstraction, William Reaves Fine Art, Houston, Texas
2013 Restless Heart: The Collectors’ Quest to Find Texas in Art, San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts, San Angelo, Texas
2013 Rhythms of Modernism, William Reaves Fine Art, Houston, Texas
2013 Summer Encore Exhibition, William Reaves Fine Art, Houston, Texas
2014 Houston Founders at City Hall Art Exhibition, City Hall, Houston, Texas
2014 A New Visual Vocabulary: Developments in Texas Modernism 1935-1965, One Allen Center, Lobby Gallery, Houston, Texas
2014 Lone Star Masters of Modernism, William Reaves Fine Art, Houston, Texas
2015 Bayou City Chic: Progressive Streams of Modern Art in Houston, Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi, Texas (catalogue)
2016, This WAS Contemporary Art: Fine and Decorative Arts in Houston, 1945 – 1965, Heritage Society, Houston, TX
2022, Texas Artists: Women of Abstraction, Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi, Texas

Selected Public Collections

Anderson, Greenwood and Company, Houston, Texas
Bank of the Southwest, Houston, Texas
Church of the Holy Faith, Santa Fe, New Mexico
Episcopal Church of the Epiphany, Houston, Texas
Holy Rosary Catholic Church, Houston, Texas
St. Basil’s Church, Angleton, Texas
St. Philip Neri Church, Houston, Texas
Texas Institute for Research and Rehabilitation, Houston, Texas

Stella Sullivan

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