Stella Sullivan in in the 1960s.
Stella Sullivan, an influential Houston-based artist, passed away after a long illness on December 24, 2017, at age 93. Sullivan was a Texas Modernist who was most active in the mid-century. The following comes from Sullivan’s dealer, Houston gallery William Reaves|Sarah Foltz Fine Art:
“Throughout her career spanning seven decades as an artist and teacher, she was an instructor at the University of Houston and at the MFAH’s Glassell School of Art, and held studio classes at her Stella Sullivan School of Art in Rice Village where she taught painting, drawing, design, and silk-screening,” and, “She was a true artist, always pursuing her love for art through her mastery of a wide variety of media — including painting, printmaking, jewelry, and textiles.”
Randy Tibbits, a founder of the Houston Earlier Texas Art Group, has said of Sullivan (via the Houston Chronicle): “As part of the continuum of Houston art history, she was the one degree of separation taking present-day Houstonians back to the beginnings of our modern art culture.”
Sullivan received an architecture degree from Rice in 1945, and an MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art in Detroit in 1954 (after which she returned to Houston), and she was also a founder of the artist collective store Handmakers. She was contemporaries with, among others, Houston artists Emma Richardson Cherry, Ola McNeill Davidson, Grace Spaulding John and Ruth Pershing Uhler.
The following visitation, burial, memorial, and contribution information comes via Reaves | Foltz Fine Art:
A visitation will be held from 4:00 – 7:00 p.m, Friday, January 5, 2018 at Joseph J. Earthman Generations, 234 Westcott Street.
A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at 1:30 p.m., Saturday, January 6, 2018 at Holy Rosary Catholic Church, 3617 Milam Street.
The Rite of Committal will follow at Holy Cross Cemetery, 3502 N. Main Street, Houston, Texas. All services will take place in Houston, Texas.
For those wishing to honor her memory, the family suggests contributions to Holy Rosary Catholic Church (designed by her father, and where her painting of the Virgin of Guadalupe hangs in the South transept), Rice University, Cranbrook Academy of Art or a charity of your choice.
To leave a message or condolence for the family, please visit josephjearthman.com.
For more on Sullivan, please go here.
