Biography
Born September 22 1926 in New York City to William Galey Lord and Frances Victoria Norton.
Raised in Old Westbury, Long Island. As a boy he loved Baseball, and played catcher. Phillies games with his cousins. 1940-1944 Hotchkiss School, Lakeville, CT. Demonstrates interest in being a cartoonist. Begins to summer in East Hampton and Amagansett, Long Island.
After Highschool, at age 18 Volunteers and serves in the U.S. Army as radio operator. Spends two years in the military, including be stationed in Bavaria during occupation. After service 1946-1950 Attends Yale University. Acts as features editor or the Yale Daily News to which he contributes cartoons. Majors in English, with a minor in history. Awarded B.A., 1950. His roommates were Peter Mattheissen, Tom Guinzberg, William Buckley, George Plimpton.
Finishes college at age 24, and moves Seattle. He spent nine months in struggling to write fiction. Begins to draw in March 1951, first from a photograph of a niece, then an armchair. Drives from Seattle back east. Enroute to New York, visits poet Paul Engle (1908-1991), the Director of the Writer’s Workshop at the University of Iowa. Summers in Amagansett. Works at John Drew Theater at Guild Hall in East Hampton.
At age 25 , in 1951, he move to Iowa City in September to study writing and painting at the University of Iowa’s Writer’s Workshop and School of Art. Withdraws from the Writer’s Workshop in January 1952 to focus exclusively on painting. Memorable classes include: still-life painting with Stuart Edie (1908-1974), a Woodstock artist trained at the Art Student League, and painting with Byron Burford (b. 1912), whose technical remarks remain useful throughout Lord’s career. Experiments in printmaking under Mauricio Lasansky (b.1914); abandons it preferring the directness of drawing and painting. Works in library, educating himself in art history. in December 1952, at age 26 he marries art student Francile Downs. During the summer of 1953 and 1954 visits her family in Waco, Texas, and his own in Amagansett. Draws landscape on the Gulf of Mexico, near Corpus Christi, Texas. Continues to draw in Amagansett, where he also paints landscapes.
In 1954 at age 28 SNL & Francile leave University of Iowa after three years- without taking a degree. The couple moves to Springs, Long Island, and rents a cottage from the sculptor Wilfrid Zogbaum. Paints still lifes and a group of small beach vistas in Zogbaum’s studio. Peter Matthiessen introduces him in October 1954 to Lee Krasner and Jackson Pollock with whom a close friendship develops. Friends include James Brooks and his wife, Charlotte Park Brooks, Conrad and Antia Marca-Relli and other artists and writers living on the east end of Long Island.
SNL buys land in Springs and dedicates most of his time to building a house. Helps with construction projects at Pollock’s home. After Pollock’s death in 1956, helps Lee Krasner inventory the work in Pollock’s studio.
SNL spent much of his 30’s making drawings, some with pen and ink wash. In 1962 he moves to Manhattan. In the fall of 1963 , he joins an artists’ group that meets regularly at 14th street and Sixth Avenue to draw from live models. Continues drawing intensively, sometimes more than five nights a week, until 1969. In 1963 he is hired the Brooklyn Museum Art School. His was administrative assistant to the museum director, and he taught classes. In 1969 Lord served as Interim Director at Brooklyn Museum Art School during the spring and summer. While at the Brooklyn Museum School he developed an important friendship Francis Cunningham, who becomes a mentor and lifelong friend. Lord spent spends 12 years on the faculty of the Brooklyn Museum Art School from 1963 -1975. At age 43 Lord exhibits his art for the first time. A landscape painting and a charcoal drawing are included in 17th Annual Fine Arts Festival, The Parrish Art Museum, August 30-September 21,1969
Lord’s personal life was unsettled. In 1963 he separates from Francile, they divorce in 1965, when SNL is 39. 1967 at age 41 Marries Gertrude-Mercer (Gipsy) Altemus Hutten-Czapski.
In 1968 SNL bought the house on Parsonage Lane in Sagaponack. The marriage to Gipsy lasts until 1970.
From 1969 - 1972 Begins to regularly submit art to exhibitions, and to sell paintings and drawings privately. Clients include Ryan’s Guinzberg, Epsteins, Decker, Connicks, Betty Vreeland, Namuth, Styron…. He record keeping is more casual, but he was able to pull the list together years later in 1993 for the purposes of the show at the Parrish.
1972 -1976 Meets Pamela Silver Maynard. They marry in 1975. Two paintings included in exhibition A Sense of Place: The Artist and the American Land, curated by Alan Gussow, Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, NB, September 23-October 28, 1973. A version of the exhibition was circulated by the Mid-America Arts Alliance to twenty locations in five states during 1973 and 1974 and occasioned Gussow’s book of the same title (San Francisco: Friends of the Earth, 1973). 1976 Exhibits in Artist of the Region Invitational Exhibition #27, Guild Hall Museum, July 17-August 17, 1976. Oct 17, 1976 his stepson Thomas Maynard drowns in a sailing accident.
1982 Resumes still life while continuing to paint landscapes. 1983 Exhibits four paintings in The Parrish Invitational ’83, The Parrish Art Museum, September 11-October 30, 1983. 1985
Stops painting away from his own house and turns to views painted on his property.
From the late 1980s, increasingly dedicates attention to still life, painting landscapes only occasionally. 1988 Exhibits in Drawing on the East End, 1940-1988, The Parish Art Museum, September 18- November 13, 1988. 1990 Ronald G. Pisano selects one of Lord’s paintings (no. 17) for the exhibition Long Island Landscape Painting: The Twentieth Century, The Heckscher Museum, Huntington, NY, June 30-August 26, 1990. The same painting is reproduced in volume 2 of Pisano’s Long Island Landscape Painting (Boston: Little, Brown, 1990) , pp.128-129 1992 Exhibits in 54th Annual Artist Members’ Exhibition, Guild Hall Museum, February 29- April 11, 1992. Awarded best representational painting (for no. 41) by judge Barbra Haskell. 1993 Included in The Artist as Native: Reinventing Regionalism, a group exhibition curated by Alan Gussow, Babcock Galleries, New York City, October 30- November 27, 1993.
In the summer of 1993 when the Parrish museum and SNLord reached an agreement about having an exhibit scheduled for 1995, my stepfather was in good health. John Walsh and SNL began to work on putting together the exhibit in the old Museum site. By then John was the head the Getty Museum, so the show and the catalog were a labor of love. The two men were good friends because John had a particular interest in Dutch painting (!!) and he loved talking to SNL about painting techniques and composition.
Unfortunately, in December 1993 SNL was diagnosed with mesothelioma, a fatal type of lung cancer. He was only 68 years old and my mother was only 60! As a result, the show ended up becoming a memorial exhibition. My step father died in July of ’94. The show opened in the fall of 1995. It was a very bittersweet time for our family. By all accounts, the Parrish show was a big success, but it was sad to lose such a loving family member, and wonderful artist. It was the end of an era, and my mother knew it, and she determined to set a new course for her life. This is why she opted to sell the house your family now owns.
Here is a link to John Walsh talks @ Yale. He is a beloved professor emeritus there:
https://artgallery.yale.edu/education/programs/john-walsh-lecture-series
Exhibitions
Solo Exhibitions
Things in Place: Landscapes and Still Lifes by Sheridan Lord
The Parrish Art Museum,
Southampton, June 4 – July 9, 1995,
Sheridan Lord
1926 -1994 Drawings
Glenn Horowitz Bookseller, 87 Newtown Lane, East Hampton, June 4 – July 9, 1995,
Sheridan Lord Paintings
Peter Findlay Gallery, 41 East 57th St, NYC, NY. November 6 – 25, 1997
in association with Leslie Feeley Fine Arts
Group Exhibitions
17th Annual Fine Arts Festival
The Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, August 30 – September 21,1969
18th Annual Fine Arts Festival
The Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, September 6 – October 4, 1970
19th Annual Fine Arts Festival
The Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, August 29 – October 3, 1971
Long Island Painters Awards Exhibition
Guild Hall Museum,
East Hampton, April 15–May 6, 1972
A Sense of Place: The Artist and the American Land
Joslyn Art Museum,
Omaha, Nebraska,
September 23 – October 28, 1973
Artist of the Region Invitational Exhibition #27
Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, July 17– August 17, 1976
The Parrish Invitational ‘83
The Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, September 11 – October 30, 1983
Drawing on the East End, 1940-1988
The Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, September 18– November 13, 1988
Long Island Landscape Painting: The Twentieth Century
The Heckscher Museum, Huntington, NY, June 30-August 26, 1990.
54th Annual Artist Members’ Exhibition
Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton,
Feb 29–April 11, 1992
Artist as Native: Reinventing Regionalism
Babcock Galleries,
New York City,
October 30–November, 1993
American Landscapes: Treasures from the Parrish Art Museum
Permanent Collection Exhibition
The Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, September 27, 2009 – November 29, 2009
American Still Life: Treasures from the Parrish Art Museum
Permanent Collection Exhibition
The Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, October 10, 2010 – 28, 2010
Still Life in the Studio
Permanent Collection Exhibition
The Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, November 8, 2014 – October 25, 2015
Chronology
This chronology was compiled by Emily Goldstein in 1995, the year after he died.
1926 Born September 22 in New York City to William Galey Lord and Frances Victoria Norton.
1926-1940 Raised in Old Westbury, Long Island.
1940-1944 Attends Hotchkiss School, Lakeville, CT. Demonstrates interest in being a cartoonist. Begins to summer in East Hampton and Amagansett, Long Island.
1944-1946 Volunteers and serves in the U.S. Army as radio operator. Stationed in Bavaria during occupation.
1946-1950 Attends Yale University. Acts as features editor or the Yale Daily News to which he contributes cartoons. Majors in English, with a minor in history. Awarded B.A., 1950.
1950-1951 Lives nine months in Seattle, struggling to write fiction. Begins to draw in March 1951, first from a photograph of a niece, then an armchair. En route to New York, visits poet Paul Engle (1908-1991), the Director of the Writer’s Workshop at the University of Iowa. Summers in Amagansett. Works at John Drew Theater at Guild Hall in East Hampton.
1951-1954Moves to Iowa City in September to study writing and painting at the University of Iowa’s Writer’s Workshop and School of Art. Withdraws from the Writer’s Workshop in January 1952 to focus exclusively on painting. Memorable classes include: still-life painting with Stuart Edie (1908-1974), a Woodstock artist trained at the Art Student League, and painting with Byron Burford (b. 1912), whose technical remarks remain useful throughout Lord’s career. Experiments in printmaking under Mauricio Lasansky (b.1914); abandons it preferring the directness of drawing and painting. Works in library, educating himself in art history. Marries art student Francile Downs in December 1952. During the summer of 1953 and 1954 visits her family in Waco, Texas, and his own in Amagansett. Draws landscape on the Gulf of Mexico, near Corpus Christi, Texas. Continues to draw in Amagansett, where he also paints landscapes.
1954-1960 Leaves University of Iowa after three years without taking a degree. Moves to Springs, Long Island, and rents a cottage from the sculptor Wilfrid Zogbaum. Paints still lifes and a group of small beach vistas in Zogbaum’s studio. Peter Matthiessen introduces him in October 1954 to Lee Krasner and Jackson Pollock with whom a close friendship develops. Friends include James Brooks and his wife, Charlotte Park Brooks, Conrad and Antia Marca-Relli and other artists and writers living on the east end of Long Island. Buys land in Springs and dedicates most of his time to building a house. Helps with construction projects at Pollock’s home. After Pollock’s death in 1956, helps Lee Krasner inventory the work in Pollock’s studio.
1960-1962 Resumes working, making mostly drawings, some with pen and ink wash.
1962 Moves to Manhattan. In the fall, joins an artists’ group that meets regularly at 14th street and Sixth Avenue to draw from live models. Continues drawing intensively, sometimes more then five nights a week, until 1969.
1963 Takes a position at the Brooklyn Museum Art School, which he holds until 1969, as administrative assistant to the director. Teaches there until 1975, part-time at first. Meets teaching colleague, Francis Cunningham, who becomes a mentor and lifelong friend. Separates from Francile.
1965 Divorced from Francile.
1967 Marries Gertrude Mercer (Gipsey) Altemus Hutten-Czapski.
1968 Buys house in Sagaponack, where, beginning in 1969, he lives and works for the rest of his life.
1969 Serves as Interim Director at Brooklyn Museum Art School during the spring and summer. Spends August in Sagaponack and resumes landscape painting. Executes twenty-four paintings that month, first using small canvases, then larger. Exhibits a landscape and a charcoal drawing in 17th Annual Fine Arts Festival, The Parrish Art Museum, August 30-September 21,1969 Returns to New York in September to teach several courses at the Brooklyn Museum Art School.
1970 Exhibits two landscapes in 18th Annual Fine Arts Festival, The Parrish Art Museum, September 6- October 4, 1970. Joins Francis Cunningham, August Mosca, and Chris Beels once a week in Cunningham’s New York apartment to draw from live models; continues through 1972. Divorced from Gipsey.
1971 Exhibits two landscapes in 19th Annual Fine Arts Festival, The Parrish Art Museum, August 29- October 3, 1971.
1972 Exhibits thirteen painting in Long Island Painter Awards Exhibition (juried by Robert Gwathmey and George T. Griffin), Guild Hall Museum, East Hampton, April 15-May 6, 1972. Exhibits two landscapes in 20th Annual Fine Arts Festival, The Parrish Art Museum, September 17- October 15, 1972. Meets Pamela Silver Maynard.
1973 Two paintings included in exhibition A Sense of Place: The Artist and the American Land, curated by Alan Gussow, Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, NB, September 23-October 28, 1973. A version of the exhibition was circulated by the Mid-America Arts Alliance to twenty locations in five states during 1973 and 1974 and occasioned Gussow’s book of the same title (San Francisco: Friends of the Earth, 1973).
1975 Marries Pamela Silver Maynard.
1976 Exhibits in Artist of the Region Invitational Exhibition #27, Guild Hall Museum, July 17-August 17, 1976.
1982 Resumes still life while continuing to paint landscapes.
1983 Exhibits four paintings in The Parrish Invitational ’83, The Parrish Art Museum, September 11-October 30, 1983.
1985 Stops painting away from his own house and turns to views painted on his property. From the late 1980s, increasingly dedicates attention to still life, painting landscapes only occasionally.
1988 Exhibits in Drawing on the East End, 1940-1988, The Parish Art Museum, September 18- November 13, 1988.
1990 Ronald G. Pisano selects one of Lord’s paintings (no. 17) for the exhibition Long Island Landscape Painting: The Twentieth Century, The Heckscher Museum, Huntington, NY, June 30-August 26, 1990. The same painting is reproduced in volume 2 of Pisano’s Long Island Landscape Painting (Boston: Little, Brown, 1990) , pp.128-129
1992 Exhibits in 54th Annual Artist Members’ Exhibition, Guild Hall Museum, February 29- April 11, 1992. Awarded best representational painting (for no. 41) by judge Barbra Haskell.
1993 Included in The Artist as Native: Reinventing Regionalism, a group exhibition curated by Alan Gussow, Babcock Galleries, New York City, October 30- November 27, 1993.
1994 Dies, July 27, in New York City.