- Lucas Samaras
Infobox Artist
bgcolour = #6495ED
name = Lucas Samaras
imagesize = 250px
caption = "Self-portrait ," "Photo-Transformation," Polaroid SX-70 print, 1973,Getty Museum
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birthdate = 1936
location =Kastoria, Greece
deathdate =
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nationality = American
field =Photography ,Sculpture ,Printmaking
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awards =Lucas Samaras was born inKastoria, Greece . He studied atRutgers University on a scholarship, where he metAllan Kaprow and George Segal. He participated in Kaprow's "Happening s," and posed for Segal's plastic sculptures. [Stiles, p. 290.]Claes Oldenberg , whose Happenings he also participated in, later referred to Samaras as one of the "New Jersey school," which also included Kaprow, Segal,George Brecht ,Robert Whitman ,Robert Watts ,Geoffrey Hendricks andRoy Lichtenstein . Samaras previously worked in painting, sculpture, andperformance art , before beginning work in photography.ed room environments that contained elements from his own personal history. [Id.] His "Auto-Interviews" were a series of text works that were "self-investigatory" interviews. [See Stiles, p. 349, for "Another Autointerview," 1971.] The primary subject of his photographic work is his own self-image, generally distorted and mutilated. He has worked with multi-mediacollage s, and by manipulating the wet dyes in Polaroid photographic film to create what he calls "Photo-Transformations".Works by Samaras are included in the collections of numerous public art institutions, including
The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu , theCourtauld Institute of Art (London), theGetty Museum (Los Angeles), theHonolulu Academy of Arts , theLos Angeles County Museum of Art , theModern Art Museum (Fort Worth, Texas), theMuseum of Contemporary Art (Los Angeles), theMuseum of Modern Art (New York City), theSan Francisco Museum of Modern Art , theNational Gallery of Australia (Canberra), theNational Gallery of Art (Washington D.C.), theSmithsonian American Art Museum (Washington D.C.), theTate Gallery (London), theWalker Art Center (Minnesota) and theWhitney Museum of American Art (New York City).Notes
References
*Kristine Stiles and Peter Selz, editors. "Theories and Documents of Contemporary Art: A Sourcebook of Artists' Writings". University of California Press, 1996.
* Jo Applin, '"Materialized Secrets": Samaras, Hesse and the Small Scale Box', "Object", no. 4, 2002External links
* [http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artMakerDetails?maker=3793&page=1 Getty Museum bio of Lucas Samaras]
* [http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/samaras_lucas.html Artcyclopedia list of Samaras works viewable online]
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